Severe Thunderstorms In Melbourne Australia

[Coast]

Emergency services are preparing for severe thunderstorms in Melbourne and have answered more than 120 calls for help across the state. The State Emergency Service has received 49 calls from residents in Melbourne’s central suburbs including Doncaster, Knox and Malvern. The calls were mainly reporting wind damage to houses. The SES is preparing for heavy rain, strong winds and hail to pass through Werribee and across the bay to south-eastern suburbs including Frankston. Melbourne's south-east has borne the brunt of the storms with East Bentleigh receiving 23 millimetres of rain in just six minutes. Frankston received about 30mm of rain within an hour while more than 10mm fell in South Oakleigh.

‘‘Between 6pm and 7pm is when we’re expecting the very heavy rainfall and then moving through the state to the north-east later on tonight. It’s expected to go through the western parts of the outer metro area between 5pm and 6pm so it’s likely to be in the peak time of people leaving work," a State Emergency Service spokeswoman said late this afternoon.

She said the SES was advising people to drive carefully and take extra time and care on the roads as they made their way home. "That’s likely (to be) when we’ll be seeing the heavy rain across Melbourne and the outer areas.’’ There are expectations between 30 and 40 millimetres of rain could fall on the city. Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Peter Newham said the storm front would hit western metropolitan areas first.

‘‘We’ve tried to time that line coming in from the west and its looking more like 6pm to 7pm now. There is still a chance something could happen earlier but that looks like that’s where the main activity will be, on that front coming through. ‘‘It is quite a big line now, extending from right up near the border down to near Cape Otway. So it’s expected to move eastwards and storms develop in front of it.’’

Earlier today, the bureau issued severe weather warnings for flash flooding as the city woke from another sweltering night. Blue skies visible from the city at lunchtime were temporary, the bureau said. ‘‘This is obviously a benign period between the two fronts, but we still have this second front to move through,’’ Mr Newham said earlier today. He said that in the space of just 10 minutes, Port Fairy was bucketed with 15 millimetres of rain. Similar downpours were expected elsewhere as the storm front travelled eastwards.

The bureau has released severe thunderstorm warnings for the south-west, north-east and Wimmera districts of Victoria, forecasting flash flooding, damaging winds, hail and heavy rain. The areas expected to be affected include Hamilton, Warrnambool, Portland, Wodonga, Wangaratta and Falls Creek and the SES has urged residents to take safety precautions. ‘‘There is still definitely the potential for 10 to 30 millimetres of rain across the Melbourne area and higher in some areas if we get some thunderstorms.’’

Most of the state is on flood watch, with areas around Mt Buller expected to receive more than 100 millimetres in just a few hours. Parts of Gippsland are also on flood-watch. SES workers responded to about 40 requests for assistance across the state today. ‘‘That’s relatively quiet. Most of them have been minor building damage or trees down just due to the strong winds that are starting to cross the state.

Yesterday, volunteers from the SES received 60 calls for were called to 60 wild weather and spokesman Lachlan Quick expects today to be even busier. ‘‘We had one or two trees fall down but there was no major damage yesterday, the real impact was on the roads and the number of accidents we had,’’ he said. ‘‘But today we are expecting to be getting more rain in Melbourne, between lunchtime and 7pm, than we had yesterday. ‘‘So we would expect to see flash flooding and significant impact on the roads and probably see a number of call outs for assistance from the public.’’

The greater concern for SES workers is potential flooding in Victoria’s north-east, with 100 millimetres expected to fall within six to eight hours. Mr Quick said the Goulburn and Broken River catchments were at risk of flooding. ‘‘There are a number of catchments that are already full and, because they’ve had a good soaking yesterday, we would expect much of the 100 millimetres of rain that they’re forecasting to go straight into the rivers and swell those,’’ he said. ‘‘So there is a real risk of river flooding. And they’ve got a chance to stay up for a couple of days because there is going to be a fair bit of water dropping in a short space of time.’’

Mr Quick said he did not expect this afternoon’s rain to be worse than January’s deluge. ‘‘But it could be similar to the activity we had last year in September and October, only because it’s happening really quickly. But I don’t think it will last as long as those,’’ he said. ‘‘We might have to rescue people that are trapped in flood water, whether they are driving or have to be rescued from their homes, or we could have to make emergency repairs to property that has been damaged by storm or flood water. ‘‘We will be working with the local councils, local police and other local emergency services to help prepare communities. ‘‘It’s just about getting those messages out that people shouldn’t be driving, riding or walking in flood water because we’ve already had one death this year in Victoria due to driving in flood waters and we don’t want another.’’

The bureau has forecast relief from the bad weather and humidity that has caused many sleepless nights. Last night was particularly humid and Melbourne is sweating again today, with humidity currently at 70 per cent and the temperature expected to top 26 degrees. The bureau expects the storms to clear the high level of moisture in the air and normal weather conditions to resume by tomorrow afternoon. Storms and heavy showers hit Melbourne’s south-east yesterday, with Frankston North and Mt Dandenong (24mm), Thorpdale (27mm) and further north to Pine Creek (32mm), recording some of the heaviest rainfall totals.

They also ruptured "extreme" levels of pollen grains in the city's air, causing smaller particles to enter the lungs of asthma sufferers, triggering a spate of attacks. Today is ‘‘Wear Orange Wednesday’’, the national day for people to wear orange to show support for the SES. ‘‘And as it happens, we’re going to have to call on a couple of thousand of them to get out there and work,’’ Mr Quick said.

http://www.smh.com.a...1109-1n661.html

WEATHER WARNINGS

Vic - 18:32 EDT - Severe Storms to affect Caulfield, Dandenong and Glen Waverley by 7:05 pm and Pakenham, Scoresby and Sunbury by 7:35 pm

Vic - 18:29 EDT - Severe Storm Warning (Damaging Wind, Hail & Flooding) Central, Mallee, N Country, N Central, NE, SW, W & S Gippsland & Wimmera

Vic - 16:09 EDT - Road Weather Alert for Melbourne due to very heavy rainfall reducing visibility

Vic - 15:53 EDT - Strong Wind Warning for Western Port and Port Phillip

Vic - 15:30 EDT - Severe Weather Warning (Flash Flooding) for Northern Country, North Central, Central, West and South Gippsland and North East

All warnings from Bureau of Meteorology.

http://www.weatherzo...u/satellite/vic

Victoria Satellite Notes

Masses of cloud over western VIC are forming in a deepening trough and are generating severe thunderstorms. Cloud is building into severe thunderstorms further east, mainly on and north of the ranges. Thick cloud over the far east is moving offshore, taking storms with it

[Coast]

The SES earlier upgraded its warnings from severe to damaging wind, flash flooding and large hailstones. The warning said the storms would hit over the next couple of hours. The bureau said: “Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. “Locations which may be affected include Wodonga, Wangaratta, Horsham, Ballarat, Bendigo, Maryborough, Geelong and Melbourne."

Bureau forecaster Peter Newham said there had been reports of large hail, strong wind gusts and localised flash flooding West of Melbourne. “They’re pretty big thunderstorms, the ones we’re observing on radar West of Melbourne…at the moment they’re just south of Ballarat,†Mr Newham said. I think they will move across the western suburbs in the next half an hour to an hour and then we’ll see further development in the next hour over central and eastern suburbs,†Mr Newham said late this afternoon.

VicRoads has warned drivers to take care when driving during tonight’s storms as roads may be slippery so they should slow down. Headlights should be used if visibility is impaired and drivers should leave a greater distance between their own car and the one in front,†the warning said. “Flash flooding can often be sudden and severe, resulting in dangerous driving conditions. VicRoads reminds drivers to be careful when driving in locations where recent flash flooding has damaged or left water across roads.â€

Drivers were urged to check the Vic Roads website for latest traffic information before driving tonight. Earlier today it was predicted commuters were to bear the brunt of Melbourne's storms this afternoon with the worst rain expected around 6pm. The bureau warned the sunny weather this afternoon was misleading. Forecaster Andrea Peace said the storm front would move through relatively quickly - heavily lashing some parts of Melbourne for about half an hour - and would continue through to tomorrow morning with early rainfall. We have a line of storms from Lorne to Halls Gap and through to South Australia", Ms Peace added. "Today we've seen some wind gusts of up to 100km/h and and rain 10 - 20mm."

Earlier forecasters predicted up to 40mm to hit during the evening peak-hour from about 4pm, with higher altitude areas potentially facing even worse conditions. Areas around Mt Buller and to its east may receive as much as 100mm of rain in a few hours. The bureau warned flash flooding is possible, particularly for people living near rivers and catchments. Residents in the northeast Victoria could see major flooding, the bureau said, and people should be prepared to move to higher ground.

Catchments at Werribee, Bunyip, Maribyrnong and Yarra may receive up to 50mm of rainfall, swelling rivers and streams around Melbourne. With the mercury soaring early before an expected top of 26C, all the moisture is making Melbourne sweat. But relief is on the way, once the worst of the storms pass in the next 18 hours Melbourne can look forward to drier conditions tomorrow afternoon, according to the bureau. Storm cells savaged Melbourne yesterday morning and caused power outages in Gippsland. Weather bureau senior forecaster Kevin Parkyn said storms that brought up to 50mm of rainfall in the state's southeast also saturated Victoria's catchments, priming them for flooding.

Parts of the state are expected to cop up to 150mm over a three-day period by the time the storms pass. SES deputy operations director Tim Wiebusch said rivers in the northeastern catchments, including the Goulburn and Broken Rivers, would flood. The bureau has put most parts of the state on flood watch but Mr Wiebusch said the rain would not be as severe as January's deluge. Rainfall was heaviest in Melbourne's southeast yesterday with Frankston North and Mt Dandenong receiving 24mm, while Thorpdale recorded 27mm.

Further north Pine Creek took in 32mm.

Weather bureau senior forecaster Terry Ryan said the severity of yesterday's storms, which hit Melbourne at 3.30am, was unexpected. "It was a bit of a surprise ... how big they were," he said.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au

[Lauren]

^^^

CRIKEY!

[SteveB]

Some of those photos are epic, real scary looking stuff.

[gottolovethisweather]

Some pics there, look like something from a film set.

Crikey indeed.

Much more mundane here right now, but by the 12th I think a brighter colder pattern will start to emerge consistently from the models. Hopefully, by then, we can also get some convective stuff pop up.

Cheers

gottolovethisweather

[Styx]

Surprisingly, these events are not especially rare during La nina summers, its the frequency of the intensity of these events which I think is being noted as significant.

We also have the same media obsession about weather extremeties as the UK press appears to have, so such events are usually overblown a little or a lot.

Still it was a noticable storm.

Models don't indicate such a severe southern 'wet season' this year as last, but indications point to it being wetter than the norm, so I reckon more events like these are a sure thing.

[Coast]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQsQ-uvfS2I

[Cookie]

wow thanks for sharing, epic stuff!