Taranganba Flash Flood/Heatwave
The storms last week brough welcome rain to most of Capricornia and SEQ. Then the heat followed with 35.8C last Sunday.
And six more oppressive days of high humidity and hot temperatures.
Even the early mornings with the humidity around 90 per cent plus and temperatures around 24C were hard to take.
Very uncomfortable. This was all due to the aftermath of the VRD Tropical Low (VTL).
It started in the NT the last week of February and dumped flooding monsoon rain from the NT into north west Queensland.
Last weekend Burketown westward turned into a broad lake.
Flooding inundated many properties, 100 year old homesteads, thousands of floating carcasses and cattle in trees.
Estimated falls of 600-700mm in three days making it look like Julia Creek 2019 revisited.
As the 998hPa Low trekked near the south east of the Gulf and headed south inland.
Being well inland it surprisingly triggered a small narrow convergent band of extreme rainfall near the coast.
This mini convergent coastal rainband (MCCR) dumped over 300mm in 24hrs at Kuranda west of Cairns.
A similar MCCR occurred at Mirani west of Mackay then the next day it appeared on radar at Yeppoon with Taranganba recording 248.8mm (Kerry Matthews).
Streets were flooded with cars floated over curbs, cutters flooded causing ceilings to leaked down walls.
This all happened early morning waking people from their sleep.
From 3.30am-4am falls of 2/3mm a minute dumped over 60mm in half an hour.
This is an extreme rainfall rate. Very close to the rainfall associated with Ex- Tropical Cyclone Oswald in January 2013 which dumped 349mm in a day.
The VTL faded and caused a rare trough yet caused a trough from the Barkley to Longreach and Moree then Port Macquarie last Saturday.
As it moved east a patch work of storms developed. This left a weak low pressure over most of Queensland causing a heatwave that extended into NSW by mid-week.
Then a low developed in the Tasman Sea that headed to ( you guessed it!) NZ.
This time to South Island NZ. It got do down to 993hPa and waiting to hear about the impact.
Dorathea Mackellar our famous poet was right with the extremes of weather in ‘A Sunburnt Country’ droughts and flooding rains.
The complex trough system associated with VTL dumped over 100mm in Cootamundra NSW causing flash flooding early in the week. Plus Freddy has broken all cyclone records last 36 days (to be confirmed), after starting on 6 February and finally finishing on 3 March. It made 3 land falls (most die on the first) and causing havoc in Malawi 500km inland. Amazing!
Some are saying this is the end of the wet. Wasn’t much of a wet for CQ.
After Rocky AP recorded an little over average 146.8mm in Jan, the tenth driest February with 29.4mm and 89.8mm so far in March. Makes it a little below par late summer into autumn. What will a drier period look like coming up?
INTERNATIONAL
USA – More storms for the California in western US. With another Atmospheric River expected to dump 50-100mm with winds over 100kph and cause floods on top of the current flooded conditions.
Two deaths from the last one. In the north east with New England expecting 3-6 inches of snow – with ‘whiteout’ and 110kph gusts could bury small buildings in drifts.
On the anniversary of the blizzard of 1993. The 93 Blizzard completely burying most of the east coast under feet of snow. Considered the storm of the century.
SLOVAKIA – A severe duststorm with visibility below 50metres caused a 40 car pile up on the M1 motorway in Budapest.
One fatality and 39 injured. All from sustained winds of 70kph with gusts to 90kph from Storm ‘Diethelm.’
TURKEY – Earthquake damaged Turkey recorded extreme flooding washing vehicles and debris along roads into rivers with 14 deaths so far; in southeast Turkey’s Sanliurfa and Adiyaman provinces.
Torrential rain (estimated over 100mm) hit Tuesday with many of the deaths due to people living in makeshift accommodation after the 7.8 earthquake that accounted for over 52,000 fatalities in early February.
MALAWI – Tropical Cyclone Freddy after its epic crossing of the Indian ocean, lasted over month and tagged with the longest lived cyclone ever.
It bounced back and forth across the Mozambique channel recrossing the African coast twice before its inland journey.
Hitting Malawai about 500km inland from the coast causing massive floods, ripped trees out of the ground, people buried in mudslides, destroying close to 2000 dwellings and reports around 220 deaths so far.
Even more devastating Malawi was struggling to contain a cholera outbreak.
FORECAST
Now the VTL is gone and left the oppressive conditions. A high has moved into the Tasman Sea.
This will raise the pressure to around 1018 hPa (not seen for months) and cause a moderate South East Trade Wind ( SETW) by Sunday. Sorry boaties, stay put most of the early part of the week.
A low develops near New Caledonia which should enhance the pressure gradient along the coast and bring moderate to fresh and comfortable conditions to Capricornia.
The first ‘autumnal’ change in months. Feel like temperatures will be 30-31C early next week with a brief coastal morning shower. Might reach the Berserkers. Tuesday may see some light drizzly rain in the River City – may feel like 29C (something to look forward to).
