 |
A pair of lows straddle Bass Strait at 10am
EST, the western one throwing wintry showers into the Adelaide Hills and
the eastern one bringing gales to SE NSW. Under WA there
lurks a second cold front, presaging continuing snowy conditions on Wednesday.
BoM  |
 Rain
brings flooding around Adelaide
Heavy rain around Adelaide and in the Adelaide Hills put rivers and
creeks in flood this afternoon. Strong, moist westerly winds circling
around a 990hPa low just south of Mount Gambier threw a barrage of wintry
showers, some packing small hail, across the city all day, only easing in
the early hours of Wednesday morning. Some of the heaviest falls in the
48 hours to 9am Wednesday were Ashton Marble Hill Orchard (13km E of the
CBD) 108.6mm, Uraidla 106.0, Lenswood 104.4,
Bridgewater 90.6, Lobethal Maidment
Road 89.8, Woodside 85.0 and Lobethal 84.4. Falls across Adelaide were generally
around 50mm, and many locations had received their average August rainfall
by 9am Wednesday. These falls followed a week and a half of wet weather in
the Adelaide Plains and Hills
that have
left
catchments
saturated, and pushed the city's water storages from 50 to 62% capacity.
Flooding began during the afternoon in the Gawler, Torrens and Onkaparinga
Rivers, while many smaller creeks in the Adelaide Hills broke their banks.
The Country Fire Service and the SES received over 200 callouts to deal with
flooding problems during the afternoon and night. Houses and the main street
were flooded in Mount
Pleasant,
in
the
headwaters of the Torrens River 45km E of Adelaide CBD. Flooding was reported
from Evanston Gardens in the north to Willunga in the south, with the worst
hit areas in Lenswood, Lobethal, Williamstown and Verdun. Homes were flooded
at Stockwell in the Barossa Valley and Lobethal to the east
of
Adelaide, and over 15,000 sandbags were used to protect hundreds of properties.
Many roads were cut by local flooding. A landslide at Balhannah,
22km ESE of Adelaide, blocked Greenhill Road with the equivalent of 7 truckloads
of
mud,
while Gorge Road was closed by rockfalls, a
dam burst
at Lenswood
and
a
truck rolled over at Gilman. Some suburban intersections were flooded when
drains in the flatter parts of Adelaide could not cope with the runoff from
torrential showers.
As rain continued during the evening, water rose above minor flood level in
the main river systems. Caravan parks at Gawler and Cudlee Creek were evacuated
and expected flooding of
Bremer
River,
south
of Adelaide, forced the closure of a school at Langhorne Creek on Wednesday.
The combination of a king tide and heavy runoff caused concern that the Patawalonga
estuary
north of Glenelg would flood, but the
barrage gates were opened during the afternoon and Patawalonga Lake drained
earlier in the day in advance of the event keeping water about a metre below
the banks. In June last year, flooding of the Patawalonga caused almost $2
million in property damage when the barrage gates were
not opened.
Gales,
snow and fire in NSW
The cold front that announced Adelaide's burst of wintry weather crossed
eastern NSW late this morning, bringing snow showers to the ranges,
heavy snow in the Alps, damaging winds in the Illawarra and fanning a bushfire
in Sydney's west.
The front crossed the NSW coast late morning. Cold air moved in rapidly behind
the front, and by midday snow showers were reported as far afield
as Batlow/Tumbarumba, Mt Stromlo and the hills around Canberra, the Central
Tablelands and the Blue Mountains. There were widespread reports of low level
sleet and small hail. By evening, snow was settling above about 1100m on the
Southern and Central Tablelands as the showery conditions continued. Heavy
snow fell through the day on the Snowy Mountains.
The main surface low connected with the cold outbreak lay off the NSW South
Coast with a central pressure of 995hPa early this morning. By evening, it
had moved to SE of TAS, with a central pressure of 979. Wind strengthened during
the afternoon, and reached a peak over the Illawarra during the evening, with
gusts up to 111km/h recorded at Bellambi, north of Wollongong, and 93km/h at
Wollongong Airport at Albion Park. The steep cliffs of the Illawarra Escarpment
behind Wollongong cause strong west to northwesterly winds spilling over them
to become extremely gusty. This evening's winds caused widespread light damage
across the city. The SES attended 14 callouts, mostly for roof repairs and
mainly in and immediately south of Wollongong in the Dapto, Primbee and Berkeley
areas. Some trees were uprooted, scaffolding and hoardings blown down, two
garden sheds blown away and powerlines damaged. Electricity was cut to 2,300
homes about 8.30pm in West
Wollongong
and to the south of the city.
Over 150 firefighters battled a blaze that began in a 6ha garden mulch stockpile
at Eastern Creek in Sydney's west about noon. Wind gusting over 70km/h spread
the fire into bushland, and 3ha of scrub was burnt out before the blaze was
brought under
control.
Another fire that began today and continued through Wednesday burnt through
420ha at Wherrol Flat, 25km NW of Taree. |
