STORM

A couple of nights ago we had a storm with quite a bit of lightning and thunder. The Northeastern coast of Australia and the Top End get quite a bit of cyclonic activity in Summer, but usually Melbourne has been spared. Now with the climate changing we more often get the weather that was typically associated with Sydney - a subtropical wet Summer.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

CHANGE

Change may not always be for the better...

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

END OF SUMMER

As March progresses, it's time to say goodbye to Summer and hello to Autumn. Our weather is at best changeable, at worst calamitously unpredictable - as is the case with sudden storms and downpours.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

FREAK STORM

We had a freak storm in Melbourne overnight and this morning. Winds of up to 146km/h lashed Victoria, leaving a path of destruction littered with fallen trees, ripped-off roofs and 526,000 homes without power. At 9pm, there were about 154,000 households still in darkness across the state, with fears some areas could be without power for days.

Trees were uprooted across most Melbourne suburbs, with some crashing on to power lines, cars and homes, as well as buckling footpaths. The State Emergency Service fielded 2518 requests from residents seeking help with property damage. Things have settled down this evening, and thankfully our house was spared...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

STORMY WEATHER

We've had some quite bad weather in Melbourne over the last couple of days. Cold, rainy and windy, with hail in some parts and heavy snow up in the Victorian Alps. Winter is definitely making its presence felt. Glad to be indoors in the warmth tonight...

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

PHILLIP ISLAND

Phillip Island is an Australian island about 140 km south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. Named after Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of the Western Port. It is 26 km long and 9 km wide, with an area of about 100 km2. It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire.

A 640 m concrete bridge (originally a wooden bridge) connects the mainland town San Remo with the island town Newhaven. In the 2011 census the island's permanent population was 9,406, compared to 7,071 in 2001. During the summer, the population swells to 40,000. 60% of the island is farmland devoted to grazing of sheep and cattle.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

BROWN RAIN

A dust storm picked up by a front moving through Victoria led to a downpour of "dirty rain" across Melbourne last Wednesday, forcing public swimming pools to close and leaving cars looking like they were "sprayed with mud".

In many parts of Victoria, the average monthly January rainfall fell in a matter of a few hours. Rivers and creek swelled and ran with red, muddy water. As the rainwater dried off, it left considerable quantities of red dust on exposed surfaces...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

WILD WEATHER AGAIN

Severe thunderstorms and wild weather batter the eastern side of Australia as cyclone 'Owen' hits the north. In Melbourne, the CBD recorded more than 32mm of rain yesterday, which led to flash flooding. Today, rainfalls were not as extreme in the morning, but in the afternoon the heavens opened again! Melbourne copped another soaking of rain, as workers ended the working week. Heavy rain, lightning and thunder rolled through the city at about 5pm, with persistent rain continuing into the evening. That's about a whole month's of rain in two days!

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,

and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

OUR "LITTLE WINTER"

In the aftermath of dire warnings by meteorologists mid last week for an approaching "Stormaggedon", heavy rain did indeed hit Melbourne on Saturday evening causing flash floods and hundreds of calls to emergency services. There were more than 1300 call outs to the emergency services overall with 133 received by the control centre in just an hour from 5.30pm

The storm front hit the state on Friday, with the northeast the worst affected as Euroa, Myrtleford and the Buckland Valley facing severe flooding. Some of the rainfall totals seen are well and truly an entire summer’s rain almost in just a 24-hour period. Creeks and rivers swelled and low-lying areas in both City and country were inundated.

The storm was accompanied by a drop in temperature, especially considering that the last few days of November were marked by very high temperatures: Melbourne had six consecutive days over 30 °C, equalling the city's record for such a run of days from 1896 There was a total of 12 days over 30 °C during November 2017, well above the average of around three days, and exceeding the previous record of ten such days in November 1902 and 2009! On Friday, 1/12, the maximum was 25˚C, followed by Saturday's maximum of just 17˚C. Night-time temperatures plummeted to 10˚C, very low, for a Melbourne summer.

The photos below are from the swollen Darebin Creek at the Parklands in Fairfield. If you want to compare these photos to what a normal Summer level of water in the Creek is, see here.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,

and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,

and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.