NorthNSW

Remarkably, there was even heavier rain near the end of the month. There were persistent showers and an isolated storm along the coastal fringe which affected this area (as you can see in one of the images below, rainfall sharply decreased away from the fringe) and the Bureau's weather station at Smoky Cape about 5kms away from my house officially recorded its wettest September day on record with 89.0mm falling in the 24hrs to 9am Sep 26th (beating the record set in Sep 1998 by just 0.2mm), and this September was also officially the second wettest on record at that site. The wettest September days recorded since 1939: 1st - 89.0mm 26/9/2015 (I recorded 53.2mm on this day at my house) 2nd - 88.8mm 12/9/1998 3rd - 81.5mm 21/9/1954 =4th - 64.5mm 4/9/1965 =4th - 64.5mm 26/9/1963 6th - 54.9mm 8/9/1961 7th - 53.0mm 15/9/1988 8th - 49.0mm 16/9/1988 9th - 45.2mm 18/9/1976 10th - 44.8mm 10/9/1990 11th - 42.6mm 18/9/2015 (I recorded 44.0mm on this day at my house) The wettest September's since 1939: 1st - 1954: 254.4mm 2nd - 2015: 199.4mm (I recorded 142.2mm for the month at my house) 3rd - 1998: 179.2mm 4th - 1990: 176.0mm 5th - 1959: 141.0mm 6th - 1988: 139.2mm 7th - 1961: 133.4mm 8th - 1976: 124.7mm 9th - 2008: 122.0mm 10th - 1975: 97.9mm 11th - 1943: 81.8mm The September wet here contrasted with dry to very dry conditions over most other parts of the state during the month: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/nsw/archive/201509.summary.shtml

Severe storms impacted the local region yesterday (Sept 17th) with hail up to almost 10cm in diameter being observed at the small coastal village of Red Rock around midday (not far north of Woolgoolga). Hail was reported from a number of other places, varying in size and ground coverage. Red Rock https://www.facebook.com/groups/ncscsocial/permalink/887171531319681/ (Video, need to be logged into Facebook to view it) (All photos above, Source: North Coast Storm Chasers Social - Facebook) Red Rock again (Source: South Brisbane Storms - Facebook) Corindi (Source: ABC Coffs Coast) (Source: Coffs Coast Advocate - Facebook) Grafton (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers Social - Facebook) Ulmarra (near Grafton) (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers Social - Facebook) Article with more detail about the Horse Races incident at Grafton: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-18/horse-put-down-after-hail-strikes-racecourse/6785572 The storm was not unexpected in Grafton, they had a good 30 minutes to take pre-emptive action (storm hit just before 2pm). They prioritised money over safety (you can see on the lightning animation below it was producing a decent amount of lightning too), so the no lightning/thunder thing is untrue. Similar sentiment shared by those living in Grafton on the local newspaper website, you could definitely tell a storm was coming. Radar loop animation (click to make it bigger)(Btw, the radar is just north of Grafton. Rain echoes southwards of about Kempsey are beyond the optimal range of this radar) Radar loop animation with lightning overlay Further south in the Hunter region around Newcastle, storms brought smaller hail but were slower moving allowing for some decent accumulation of hailstones at some places. At Bateau Bay (All above photos, Source: 2GO 107.7FM - Facebook) Yesterday's storm activity and rain brought 44mm here, which was our wettest September day since 1998 (17 years). On average, September is the driest month of the year here and it is quite unusual to get heavy falls during this month. As you can see, it is notably drier than every other month of the year -

Unseasonably severe storms hit areas of NSW and inland parts of far southern QLD yesterday (Monday). Isolated severe storms also affected inland parts of northern NSW on Sunday evening. Of particular note was a storm which produced a tornado near the inland NSW city of Dubbo - Most definitely a chance that other storms could have produced a tornado, but if it doesn't occur near a town then it'll usually go unheard of. The town of Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter Valley was hit by a supercell storm in the evening bringing hail up to and possibly larger than tennis ball size - (Source of both photos: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Sydney was also affected by some strong storms - Plenty of other images and some videos of the storms across social media. An East Coast Low developed off the southern coast of NSW late yesterday and has brought heavy rain and some flooding to that area. Nowra has had just over 300mm associated with that system - Cloudcover ruined the storm potential here yesterday with only thundery rain affecting us. And in contrast to the Illawarra and South Coast, today was a sunny and warm day on the north coast with temperatures almost reaching 29 degrees. ~~~~~~~~~ In the local area, this winter has been pretty uneventful. It's been a fairly dry winter overall, with us currently sitting nearly 185mm below the winter average. There was a largely unexpected thunderstorm earlier this month here that did get the 2015/2016 storm season underway. It was a high-based and low-precipitating storm (unphotogenic) but the cluster of storms produced a reasonable amount of lightning -

Decent snow fell across the northern ranges of NSW from the last cold front/pool of air that came through. The snow fell on 12th, (mainly) 13th and a little into the early hours of the 14th. Impressive amounts on the southern parts of the northern ranges. Here's a terrain map that shows most of northern NSW (excluding the far NE NSW corner) and adjacent parts of the Granite Belt in QLD (Stanthorpe area). It might help in visualising and locating places. The QLD border isn't shown on this map but just imagine a line and it more-or-less runs Mungindi, Goondiwindi, Texas and midway between Tenterfield & Stanthorpe and then northwards off the map following near the road that passes north through Stanthorpe's "E' (Source: Australian Severe Weather) 8 centimetres of snow was reported from the town of Guyra (at 1330m ASL). The city of Armidale (980-1080m ASL), and the towns of Glen Innes (1050-1100m ASL), Uralla (1000-1040m ASL), and Walcha (1050-1120m ASL) also received settling snow, varying depths from location to location. The Eukey area in QLD near Stanthorpe around 1000m received falling snow. The airport at Armidale was briefly closed. There were heavier falls on the ranges east of Tamworth around Niangala / Topdale area (between 1150-1350m ASL, between Nundle and Walcha on the map), being a bit further south it picked up more precipitation, and Woolomin receiving 60 centimetres of snow! (http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/3212926/tamworth-road-reopens-after-heaviest-snowfall-in-decades/?cs=159)(http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/3208492/snowed-under-mini-business-boom-in-high-country-hot-spots/?cs=159) and the snowfall in this area has been called the heaviest in over 30 years. Snow drifts of one metre were reported in this area (opens into a PDF doc, http://walchatelecottage.com.au/showadvocate/20150715). Also for the first time in decades, 170 kilometres of the New England Highway had to be closed (http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/3208443/snow-and-ice-close-highways/?cs=159) The Barrington Tops (1400-1550m ASL) (between Moonan Flat and Gloucester on the map) also received good snow. Barrington Tops - (Source: Visit Barrington Tops - Facebook) Niangala area (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) Hanging Rock area (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) Near the village of Walcha Road (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) Walcha (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Armidale (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: University of New England - Facebook) Black Mountain village (the railway north of Armidale has been closed since the 1980s) (Source: Above the New England - Facebook) Guyra (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: Guyra Shire Council - Facebook) Ben Lomond village (Source: Ben Lomond Snow - Facebook) Video of snow falling near Ben Lomond on the New England Highway: https://www.facebook.com/geoffrey.w.gray.9/videos/10153492945042437/?permPage=1 Glen Innes (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source: Glen Innes From Above - Facebook) Collection of snow pictures from local newspapers: Armidale Express (28 + 13 photos) - http://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/story/3207156/gallery-let-it-snow-armidale/?cs=471#slide=1 & http://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/story/3209035/gallery-your-snow-photos/#slide=1 Guyra Argus (95 + 50 photos) - http://www.guyraargus.com.au/story/3206765/mega-photo-gallery-snow-day-magic/?cs=605#slide=1 & http://www.guyraargus.com.au/story/3207427/photos-a-selection-of-pictures-from-around-town/?cs=605#slide=1 Glen Innes Examiner (42 photos) - http://www.gleninnesexaminer.com.au/story/3206441/gallery-snow-in-glen-innes/?cs=422#slide=1 Tenterfield Star (31 + 76 photos) - http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/3206909/winter-wonderland-gallery/?cs=1514#slide=1 & http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/3204858/a-snowy-sunday-july-12-2015-photos-video/?cs=1514#slide=1 The snow brought masses of people from outside the region, some from the NSW North Coast and others from Brisbane and South East Queensland. All hotels and motels from Warwick in QLD to Armidale in NSW were reported to be booked out (http://www.tenterfieldstar.com.au/story/3212802/sell-out-town-books-out-for-snow-show/?cs=1514) In the highest parts (approx 1200m+) of the northern ranges east of Tamworth, some snow still remains on the ground. With several roads remaining closed from snow and ice. Snow is expected to fall later tomorrow (the 16th) and on Friday (17th) on the northern ranges of NSW and potentially into the adjacent Granite Belt of QLD. BOM are forecasting snow possibly falling down to 600-700m tomorrow and then 500m on Friday!!!

Such an impressive event for early May Styx. Would I be right in saying this would be a decent system for your area even in mid-winter? National summary for April. Out of 106 years, it was the 18th coldest nationwide for max temps (Western Australia 6th coldest, and South Australia 11th coldest), and 29th coldest for mean temps nationwide. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/aus/archive/201504.summary.shtml

A sixth person ended up dying during that East Coast Low. On the 2nd, a young child drowned in the surf on the far northern NSW coast at Ballina while he was walking with his father and brother along the beach. Strong surf from the low was still affecting that area. The Macleay River at Kempsey peaked at 4.9 metres, which is within the minor flood level range. Not much impact at that level of flooding, the 'largest' impact being that it cuts the upstream low-level bridges to the small farming communities/localities. Most of the flooding is contained within the river channel itself at this level. Once it gets above 5.2m at Kempsey it can start causing inconvenience as it can spill over the bank and start cutting off the main highway and other local roads near the river and floodplain. We received 256mm here at the house during the event, mostly concentrated on April 30th when 132.8mm fell and on May 1st when 91.8mm fell. Falls within the local region were as high as about 400mm. Pictures at Kempsey as the river was peaking, and the last photo is from one of the low level bridges upstream. (for comparison, the bridge at Kempsey during high tide https://www.flickr.com/photos/witnesskingtides/8290270696/ ) (Source of all photos above: Macleay Argus) In Northern NSW, there was moderate flooding on the Wilsons, Orara, Bellinger, Nambucca and Hastings Rivers. Minor flooding on the Tweed, Brunswick, Richmond, Clarence and Macleay Rivers. The town of Bellingen was cut in two as the Bellinger River flooded and went over the Lavenders Bridge.

Very heavy downpours here last night with 132.8mm falling in the 24 hours to 9am this morning. The two heaviest showers brought 41.2mm in 35 minutes and the other brought 27mm in 20 minutes, pretty much raining cats, dogs and elephants as they came over. Severe Weather Warning update issued earlier this afternoon - Coffs Harbour is currently hosting the Touch Football World Cup. Today's matches have been cancelled: http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-9035-0-0-0&sID=248914&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=34450355 Football fields in Coffs Harbour today - (Source: Scottish Touch Association - Facebook)

A flood watch has been issued for here on the northern coast of NSW (the Macleay River is the catchment I live in). The models are still undecided over where they will focus the heaviest rain and how much though. A localised thunderstorm yesterday brought falls of up to 122mm in Coffs Harbour, with 60mm falling in an hour at one of BOM's gauges there.

Certainly quite a strong East Coast Low. Heavy rain, high winds, never pretty when it strikes a populated area of coastline like the Sydney-Newcastle-Hunter area. I probably don't need to post much in the way of info, videos or pics this time as there's plenty of media and social media covering it due to it hitting Sydney and neighbouring areas. There'd be heaps on YouTube too. Significant cold anomalies over much of the country during the past few days focussed mostly in WA, NSW and southern QLD. Some places have broken their April lowest maximum records, including Marble Bar which had its coldest April day in the combined 114 year history of the Marble Bar site. It reached a maximum of 16.3ºC, breaking the previous April lowest max record of 20.1ºC which was set in 1999. Btw, the average max in April at Marble Bar is 36.2ºC. Rainfall during the past week from the initial frontal rainband, which was followed by the formation of an East Coast Low off the coast near Newcastle - The highest total during the past week was 470mm at Brogers Creek in the Illawarra (thanks to orographic enhancement). The next highest totals were in the Hunter, with 454mm at Maitland, followed by 453mm at Tocal, then 441mm at Seaham, and 435mm at Gostwyck Bridge. All these locations are within close proximity to each other. Daily rainfall over the past three days. You can see the sudden divide along the coast between the area of 100mm+ falls and little/no rain at all on the 21st and 22nd, this is fairly typical for East Coast Lows that form near the coast where areas north of the low's centre can receive very little if any rain - The highest 24 hour fall during the event was 312mm at Dungog on the 21st. Intense thunderstorms on the 22nd in the Newcastle-Hunter region brought 148mm in an hour at Maitland, with 214mm falling in two hours. Unsurprisingly, Maitland had the highest 24 hour total on the 22nd with 308mm. 113mm at Brogers Creek was the highest fall in the 24 hours to 9am this morning (the 23rd). 135km/h wind gusts were recorded at Newcastle (Nobbys Head), Norah Head and Wattamolla during the event. Copy of a Severe Weather Warning issued as the system was peaking (the 120km/h gust at Nobbys Head was a typo, it had actually peaked at 135km/h)- 250kms further north of Newcastle around here on the North Coast, there has been minimal rain during this event with just over 5mm falling. On the same day the Hunter Valley was getting soaked with torrential rain and very strong winds, it was a pleasant day here reaching 25ºC as you can see below (person on a paddleboard in the centre left of first photo) -

The past week and a half has been a transitional period from summer to autumn. The passage of a dry change late this afternoon heralding the true arrival of autumn - Last night, three storms moved through town during the period between 10:45pm-2:30am, so needless to say I didn't get alot of sleep. The storm around 2am was the strongest of the three, pretty sure it would've woken everyone up around town with the frequent lightning it contained - It reached into the high 20s here along the north coast of NSW today, but this was in contrast to the rest of the state. The first non-alpine snow of 2015 has fallen in NSW today. Flurries and dustings of snow occurred over the highest parts of the central ranges of NSW today, including in the Oberon area west of Katoomba/Sydney. Video of snow falling at Shooters Hill (near Oberon) - Some photos on this Photobucket account of the snow at Shooters Hill today: http://s1091.photobucket.com/user/Mountainmaid65/media/treedrift.jpg.html The cold pool of air on GFS's display at the 850mb and 500mb levels - Daylight saving time finished over the Easter weekend - Sunrise on Easter Saturday - 7:00am / Sunset - 6:40pm Sunrise on Easter Sunday - 6:01am / Sunset - 5:39pm

It amazes me too, though I think bruisings and minor cuts/abrasions would be reasonably common in these types of storms (especially those occurring between about 3pm-6pm) but are severely under-reported due to home first aid being sufficient without that need to seek medical attention at the hospital. After yesterday's humid 30ºC day (dewpoints were firmly in the low 20s and getting up around 24ºC), a cold front moved through overnight bringing cooler conditions and drier air today. It is looking as though summer ended yesterday, with autumnal conditions now establishing themselves from today onwards. I can't see true summery conditions dominating here again. There may be two or three proper summery days/nights over the next 2-3 weeks but autumnal conditions should be the dominate force now (the forecast below doesn't show humidity but dewpoints this week are expected to regularly be around 15-19ºC rather than quite routinely reaching 20ºC+). The change from summery to autumnal conditions here usually happens in late March or early April, so things seem to be going on schedule here.

That looks like a heavy accumulation of small hail rather than snow

Storm activity returned to the region after a fairly settled first week of March. On the 8th, storms were mostly isolated affecting areas nearer to the ranges and around Coffs Harbour. Heavy rainfall accompanied the storms with 50.2mm falling in an hour at Coffs Harbour and 50mm in 30 minutes at Woolgoolga. A storm warning wasn't issued until after the storms had affected these areas... More storms generally forming in the same area on the 9th brought more heavy rain falling at similar intensities to the day before and a wind gust of 113km/h occurring at Grafton Airport. Storms were more widespread affecting other parts of the north coast, including here during the 13th. Coffs Harbour experienced a severe storm again. Yet again it caught the Bureau unaware as there was no storm warning issued before it came. 46.6mm fell in 30 minutes with rain continuing afterwards over already saturated ground from the wet summer (549.4mm fell in February alone). The 183.4mm fall made it the wettest March day since 1974. The storms brought flash flooding to Coffs Harbour - (Source of both pics: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) (Source of both pics: NBN News - Twitter) Yesterday (the 21st), parts of inland northern NSW and inland southern QLD were affected by very severe storms that brought hail up to 12cm in diameter. Chinchilla (QLD) and eastern parts of Narrabri (NSW) were the worst affected towns. The severe thunderstorm warning issued did warn that the storms could become supercelluar, and supercells definitely developed: "Thunderstorm development in the warning area is expected to be rapid this afternoon with some thunderstorms quickly becoming severe once the storm starts. Supercell thunderstorms are considered a real possibility." Hailstone that fell near Narrabri - (Source: Narrabri Shire Weather Station Network - Facebook) (Source: The Courier Narrbari - Facebook) Hailstone at Chinchilla - (Source of both pics: Chinchilla Community Forum - Facebook) The small town of Bingara was also affected by severe hailstorms - (Source: Tamworth & Region Weather - Facebook) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoQ3oHkk1uE A couple of other videos of the severe hailstorms - https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=853692378035426 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152753910632844 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152837033669389 http://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/video-huge-hail-stones-smash-chinchillas-bulldog-p/2582071/ Last night, heavy rain and thunderstorms brought falls of up to 178mm about the southern parts of the North Coast causing localised flash flooding. Lake Cathie, a small town about 10 minutes south of Port Macquarie, had 123mm in two hours (51mm falling in the first hour, followed by 72mm falling in the next hour). The heavier stuff (50-100mm+) was to the south, missing here by about 30kms.

We were near the southern end of TC / Ex-TC Marcia effects. All up nearly 120mm of rain here associated with her, a little further north totals around the Coffs Harbour area were exceeding 200mm which was enough to cause minor riverine flooding in that area. Chicken feed compared to the totals in QLD around the Sunshine Coast and neighbouring Caboolture area where totals were in the 400s and Landsborough receiving 510mm associated with Marcia.

Some hailstorms developed between here and Brisbane on the afternoon and evening of Jan 31st. The largest stones reported were up to around 5cm in diameter. Brunswick Heads (NSW North Coast) - (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers - Facebook) Sunnybank Hills (southern suburb of Brisbane) - Springfield Lakes (outer southwestern suburb of Brisbane) - (Source of both photos above: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Just thought this was a nice pic after the storms that day at Tregeagle (NSW North Coast) - (Source: Northern NSW Severe Weather - Facebook) Missed a likely hailstorm here by barely a kilometre that evening (there was also plenty of lightning in this storm cell) - Heavy thunderstorms developed about the local region during the evening of Feb 1st and persisted in some areas overnight. We had a storm bring 38mm in 50 minutes here at the house. 74mm fell in one hour at Wooli. The highest 24 hour total among BOM's gauges was 142mm at Bray Street in Coffs Harbour. Unofficially, there was a fall of 256mm at a village called Warrell Creek between here and Macksville. There were heavy storms and showers sitting over that area non-stop for about 5½ hours (whereas most other locations had showers/storms affect them for 1-2 hours and then move on to other places, which generally stopped totals from exceeding 100mm). I'll be in Canberra from the evening of the 13th until the morning of the 17th. The min/max temps forecast for those days are: 13th 15ºC/26ºC 14th 14ºC/26ºC 15th 14ºC/30ºC 16th 16ºC/29ºC 17th 14ºC/27ºC Overall, the temps average out to be basically normal for Canberra during February.

Severe thunderstorms hit the local region once again during yesterday (Australia Day) bringing heavy to torrential downpours, not too dissimilar to the stormy day we had back on the 20th. 24 hour totals were as high as 190mm. At the coastal village of Wooli, an impressive 101mm fell in an hour during a thunderstorm. The city of Port Macquarie received 110mm in 2 hours. We missed the heaviest of the rain here but during a thunderstorm we still got a heavy fall of 36mm in 45 minutes (which I reported in, and made the storm warning once again, though they typed the town's name as 'Southwest Rock', lol!). Following that rain there was a couple of minor/moderate flood warnings issued in the smaller river valleys, with catchments fairly saturated at the moment from other heavy falls that occurred during late December and this month. Port Macquarie during the heavy rain outside of the ABC office - (Source: ABC Mid North Coast - Facebook) Some unlucky cars in Port Macquarie - (Source: ABC Mid North Coast - Facebook) "A bleak Australia Day 2015" - Port Macquarie News - 69 photos in slideshow gallery http://www.portnews.com.au/story/2840955/a-bleak-australia-day-2015-photos/?cs=257 Further south, Sydney had its coldest Australia Day in 50 years reaching a maximum of just 20.4ºC. The coldest Australia Day on record in Sydney is 19.4ºC in 1957. https://twitter.com/7NewsSydney/status/559961571351216131 https://twitter.com/WeathermanABC/status/559591501416521729 Temp anomalies map for Australia Day, Maxs Mins

Locally heavy downpours from thunderstorms brought falls of up to 228mm on Monday in the local region, with a number of other gauges picking up falls over 100mm. Thunderstorms with locally heavy downpours occurred once again yesterday with as much as 146mm falling and a few other gauges receiving over 100mm too. The localised nature of the storms meant that rainfall varied greatly over short distances. Collombatti about 25kms SW of here received 96mm in an hour yesterday evening. We had 87mm fall here at the house yesterday, with a thunderstorm bringing 42.4mm in 40 minutes during the mid-afternoon. I reported that heavy downpour to the Bureau and it made the warning The heavy rainfall caused flash flooding in some parts of the local area. This was along Crescent Head Road at its intersection with Stanley Folkard Pl, approx 4kms SE of Kempsey - (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers - Facebook) The storm that brought the heavy rain here yesterday afternoon, taken from Clybucca on the Pacific Highway looking east - (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook)

Isolated though severe storms affected parts of the northern coast between here and NSW/QLD Border in the early hours of this morning. The storms were pretty much stationary, so if one happened to form above it would basically just sit there and rain its guts out. Goonengerry recorded the highest total with 290mm falling (205mm of that falling in three hours) - Cars swept away by New Year's Eve flash flooding on NSW north coast By Elloise Farrow-Smith and Justine Frazier Flash flooding has swept about 10 cars into a local creek near Mullumbimby on the New South Wales north coast. About 175 millimetres of rain from a severe thunderstorm fell just after midnight at Upper Main Arm in the hills behind Mullumbimby. Hundreds of partygoers were left stranded at Kohinur Hall during a New Year's Eve party when a local creek that feeds into the Brunswick River overflowed. Inspector Darren Steel said those who parked close to the creek did not have much to celebrate. "A number of cars were parked close to creeks and causeways and we believe there were about 10 vehicles swept into the creek by the rising waters," Insp Steel said. State Emergency Service crews were called to help rescue people who had tried to cross creeks at Upper Main Arm and other areas around Mullumbimby. At one stage, a car was swept away from a crossing into flood water, trapping those inside the car. The SES said it would be closely monitoring weather patterns in the area after the heavy rainfall. Long-time resident Jinta Veit said it was the wildest storm she had ever experienced. "Our house shook and the ground shook and it was right above us, it was so wild," Ms Veit said. "It's unusual for us to get 175mm in such a short time. Seven inches in a few hours is just unbelievable, it was just solid." Ms Veit said there was nothing anyone could do except continue partying. "Unless you left before 2:00am then you were just stuck there," she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-01/nye-flash-flood/5996366 The yearly rainfall chart for here, while it was below average, compared to other locations on the northern coast our deficit wasn't too large. It was probably the locally wet/stormy February that made the difference here as most other places in the region had a dry to very dry February - (Thunderday = day with thunder heard) (The thunderstorm count is the number of t'storms that passed over the house during the year, near-misses/nearby storms are not included in the count) Graph of rainfall here during past 20 years - Rainfall Total, Decile, and Anomaly Map for NSW during 2014 (if you compare it to the Decile map I posted three posts above you can see the benefit the good December rains had in reducing deficits), and also a map showing the difference between 2013 and 2014 rainfall in NSW -

We had our wettest day of the year on Sunday, receiving 84.6mm at the house. On average, we get one daily fall above 100mm during the year. Obviously varies year to year, like last year we had 4 days with 100mm+, but there were none this year. Sunday was a beautiful rainy day, love it when the weather is like this - The day before there were very localised but heavy falls in parts of the Tweed Valley (far northeast corner of NSW) thanks to an area of convergence, bringing up to 299mm (the vast majority of this rain fell in a 12 hour period) - We had our 50th thunderday of the year today with a weak high-based thunderstorm passing several kilometres south of the town - The very good rain this December has reduced rainfall deficits somewhat, so I expect the yearly rainfall map for northern parts of NSW to have the 'below average' (Decile 2-3) shading dominate rather than the 'well below average' (Decile 1) shading dominating. The rain this month is not drought-breaking rain for northern NSW, but definitely drought-easing rain. Ideally, we'll need decent follow-up rain in Jan and/or Feb. Predicted weather for New Years Eve & New Years Day -

I spent the weekend in Tamworth to celebrate Christmas at a relative's place, about a 4¼ hour drive away from here. Some photos during my trip are below. Tamworth (the entire city isn't quite photographed with parts of it stretching off out of view to the east and northwest). The city is on the western side of the Great Dividing Range, though isn't too far from the foothills of the range (the range in the distance is a spur of the Liverpool Range, the Great Divide is out of view further to the left (east). Around 650mm of rain a year is average for the city: Big Golden Guitar in Tamworth. If you don't get a photo of it, then you haven't visited Tamworth lol! Convection occurring near Tamworth. This cloud didn't end up becoming a storm, but there were storms about in other places: Kootingal is where we were staying. A small town about 15 minutes from the centre of Tamworth, you can pretty much call it a part of Tamworth these days: The Walcha area in the Northern Tabelands district (the Northern Tablelands / northern ranges are also known as the 'New England' region), on top of the Great Dividing Range. Around 800-900mm of rain a year is average for this particular area. Mount Seaview area on the coastal side of the range in the upper Hastings Valley, west of Port Macquarie (Port Macquarie is about 60kms south of here). This area gets almost 1800mm on average a year. You wouldn't think all these places were in drought judging by these pictures, the greenery in these areas is the result of fairly persistent storm activity and the absence of very hot temperatures this month. You can see on the 12 month rainfall map, that most places in the northeast part of the state have actually received well below average rainfall: The forecast for Christmas Day and Boxing Day in Coffs Harbour (which usually gets similar weather/temps to here). Personally, I think the chance of showers/storms tomorrow is a bit too high though, I'd probably put it around 30-40%. Boxing Day's chances are probably about right though: Merry Christmas everybody!

There's been fairly persistent instability during this month so far around the local area but also across much of the state in general, especially earlier this month in central and southern NSW where there were consecutive days of severe storms. Sydney recorded seven consecutive days of thunderstorms for the first time in recorded history: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/welcome-to-queensland-sydney-20141209-12385d.html While it doesn't happen every year in northern NSW or southern QLD, these long consecutive days of storms [5, 6, 7 days +] like the above are not unheard of as troughs have higher chance of stalling or becoming slow moving once they get this far north. A Severe Storm Warning has been issued for at least somewhere within the local district on 14 of the 18 days so far this month. Most of the strongest storms have tended to be nearer to the ranges though, passing over fairly unpopulated land (mostly National Park, forest or farmland). A squall line moved through northern parts of NSW and southern parts of QLD today, bringing very strong winds, a couple of observed gustnadoes, bursts of heavy rain and plenty of lightning (the odd hail report but nothing serious). Here in town we had a good summer's thunderstorm, not severe though the lightning was quite frequent and there were some close bolts, including an extremely close strike who's thunder actually hurt my ears, like someone stabbed my eardrum. Lost under a sea of lightning: A video of gustnado near Toowoomba: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1018193788196708 Brisbane (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Coffs Harbour (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) Observations from nearby Coffs Harbour, showing the very humid pre-storm conditions and then the storm itself: Archived radar loop of today on the 512km view between 11am and 9pm EDT: http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR281-grafton/2014-12-18-00/2014-12-18-10

And to add to the above post. Windows / doors breaking during storm: Window breaking: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=920705437948978&l=5436367470454061154

Certainly was a powerful storm to hit Brisbane a couple of days ago on the 27th. No shortage of videos as it tracked straight through some of the most populated parts of city, including the CBD and other parts of the inner city, plenty to find on YouTube if you want to look for more. The storm nearing the Brisbane CBD (Source: South Brisbane Storms - Facebook) Archerfield's observations (suburb of Brisbane), where the 141km/h gust was recorded Video from Archerfield Airport at the time: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152949531574642 Bowling greens become white Hail pelting down: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204769711735078 Colourful language in this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ6trruUxfc Picks up around the 1 minute mark

As Styx has said, big heat across northern NSW and southern QLD at the moment. A conveniently-timed morning southerly change saved us from the worst of the heat today but it was still rather warm and humid, until late in the afternoon when the 'real' southerly air finally pushed through bringing low level cloudcover and cooling things down. Today was most likely the peak of the heat for northern New South Wales. Despite widespread temps of 40ºC+ away from the coastal fringe on the eastern side of the range today in far northern NSW, no fire ban was issued because of the generally light winds. Fire dangers are higher tomorrow in the far north of the state despite slightly lower temps because stronger wind is expected (with a fire ban issued for tomorrow). East of the Great Dividing Range in Northern NSW, over 40s included: Casino 44.1ºC Grafton Agricultural Station 42.9ºC Very little wind when the temperature was near peaking, basically stagnant heat (this site is out of town, so urban structures aren't disrupting wind flow either) - 15/02:00pm 42.4ºC / Dewpoint 13.1ºC / 18%RH / SE 6km/h with 15km/h gusts Grafton 42.8ºC Evans Head 42.2ºC Lismore 41.1ºC West of the Great Dividing Range in Northern NSW, over 40s included (temps with no decimal places come from BOMs manual weather stations and are for the 6hrs to 3pm, final figure not released until late tomorrow morning): Mungindi 45ºC Walgett 44.6ºC Narrabri 44.0ºC Moree 43.5ºC Collarenebri 43ºC Bourke 42.9ºC (yesterday was 45.8ºC though!) Gunnedah 42.4ºC Tamworth 41.9ºC Barraba 41ºC On the Great Divide in Northern NSW, impressive temps (considering elevation) included: Armidale 34.8ºC (at 1079m ASL) Guyra 32ºC (at 1329m ASL) Glen Innes 34.6ºC (at 1044m ASL) Tomorrow could potentially be hotter than today in South Eastern QLD though. Amberley was the warmest spot on the coastal side of the range reaching 43.0ºC, followed by Gatton 42.5ºC and Beaudesert 41.3ºC. With W/NW'ly winds likely to penetrate right up to the coast tomorrow, Brisbane will certainly be warmer than today's 32.2ºC! (the city is forecast to reach 40)

Also, the day before (Oct 13th) a line of storms passed over areas of NSW including Sydney forming along a trough, looking quite picturesque as it passed over the city region. Looking at it you'd expect that there would have been widespread severe weather from it, but it wasn't quite as strong as its appearance would suggest, reports of severe weather were somewhat patchy. (Video also contains a warning about the weather system to come that night in Sydney) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJyqjAJuoSo Bondi Beach: (Source: Higgins Storm Chasing - Facebook) View towards Sydney CBD: (Source: Severe Storms Daniel Shaw - Facebook) That trough helped trigger some isolated storms the next day (Oct 14th) here in the local region, with a quick storm passing over town and hail up to around 4cm falling at Woolgoolga (a small town near Coffs Harbour). Partially obscured gust front of storm from house: Large hail at Woolgoolga: (Source: North Coast Storm Chasers - Facebook) Further north than the Blue Mountains there was also snow on some southern parts of the northern ranges overnight into the 15th. Heavy falls on the Barrington Tops: (Source: Hunter Valley LAC NSW Police Force - Facebook) Good settling around the Hanging Rock area, east of Tamworth: (Source: Prime7 News North West - Facebook)