I had to start a thread about the rain and storms we are having in New South Wales. We have had some phenominal rainfall here in Penrith with 100mm + since 3pm this afternoon. The rain right now is torrential and has been for nearly an hour from a slow moving storm.
I also noticed some severe storms on the liverpool plains today and one of them had an interesting doppler echo for about 30 minutes with strong very localised inbound and outbound wind indicating a probable mesocyclone.
nice right mover infront of the central coast squall line this arvo
The flash flood events were very poorly warned for by the BoM. For all 4 events the warnings were issued after the rain had eased or stopped.
7th Feb late evening : Lower MNC (Laurieton/Taree/Kew etc) – up to 160mm in a couple of hours and the SWW comes out after most of the rain was over
8th Feb afternoon : Belligen and Casino/Alstonvile areas – 75-100mm in quick time. SWW came out after the rain had eased.
9th Feb early evening Penrith and surrounds – SWW comes out after most of the heavy rain and flooding
10th Feb afternoon: Picton flash flood – late STW
For the 8th Feb event, I measured 76mm of rain, most of which fell between 5pm and 8pm EDT. No lightning observed.
MB
It was the same again yesterday Michael. The BoM issued a severe thunderstorm warning which included Penrith 2 minutes after storm had already hit Penrith! It was showing signs of organization and potential severity for up to 45 minutes before it hit but luckily it produced nothing more than heavy rain and a bit of flash flooding. Seems pointless to me to issue a warning so late but that seems to be a consistent thing with the BoM. they need to go back to issuing severe thunderstorm watches for potential severe weather days.
In my opinion, the reluctance to issue warnings is political pressure. I doubt that the lessons from 1999 has sunk since then or the business world and major events pressures must have overbearing influences on getting the warnings spot on within the Sydney region.
And then you have tornado warnings issued based on an SMS message in Melbourne!
Regards,
Jimmy Deguara