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Melbourne Hailstorms Christmas Day 2011

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:07:48 +0000

On the afernoon of 25th December 2011 as residents of Melbourne\s western and northern suburbs celebrated Christmas Day, a few supercells developed west of the city hitting Bachus Marsh and Melton. A moist and unstable atmosphere was in place with ideal wind shear conditions to spawn rotating storms. The result: very large to giant hailstones causing extensive damage. Although the storms initially weakened, a new updraft perhaps developing on the outflow boundary of the supercell developed on track for Melbourne Airport’s western and southern surrounding suburbs with some of the worst hits suburbs being around Taylor’s Lake. Tennis ball sized hailstones were reported causing widespread damage to thousands of vehicles! Initial estimates puts this storm into the 200 – 250 million dollar insurance range just for Suncorp alone! IAG has suggest it received 20,000 claims by early 2012. Suncorp has received 28,000 claims!

Violent Wedge Tornadoes hit Oklahoma City

admin — Sat, 28 May 2011 08:15:51 +0000

Let the videos do the talking! Incredible tornado footage from Oklahoma large wedge tornadoes!

Violent Tornado hits Joplin, Missouri

admin — Sat, 28 May 2011 07:43:24 +0000

Some of the damage has been officially classified high end EF-5 and the damage path width seems to extend for 3/4 of a mile. Unfortunately, well over 100 killed and many are still missing – one of the tornado catastrophies of the modern era occurring in 2011.

Record Breaking Tornado Outbreak Alabama

admin — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:32:21 +0000

At last count, 165 tornado reports were being investigated that lead to 300 deaths across several states – mostly in Alabama. A combination of violent conditions provided a balance of instability and incredible shear for steady state and long lived and long tracked deadly tornadoes. EF 5 damage has been documented amongst some of these tracks.

Tornado Kakadu National Park February 14 2011

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:20:27 +0000

Tourists visiting the well known and world famous Kakadu National Park were treated to more of a natural spectacle as a tornado ripped across the flat landscape. The following article from the Northern Territory News shows a video captured by one of the crew with the tourists:

Kakadu National Park Tornado

Karatha WA tornado 21st February 2011

admin — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 23:01:22 +0000

VIDEO: Moment of Impact : Karratha Tornado

http://video.theaustralian.com.au/1808544602/Moment-of-Impact–Karratha-Tornado

Photo by Sarah Knowler

Darwin drenched in record rainfall

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:51:47 +0000

With the development of Tropical Cyclone Carlos at Category 1 strength, Darwin experienced its wettest 24 hour rainfall event on record. It recorded 339.6mm of rain up until 9am Wednesday morning making it the wettest 24 hour period for Darwin!

The tropical cyclone circulation continued to slowly hover over Darwin Thursday morning dumping further heavy rainfall. The main damage was caused by flooding and strong winds.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi hits category five

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:02:52 +0000

Tropical Cyclone Yasi has edged closer to the Townsville region this morning. With wind gusts of 295km/h Yasi has attained category five status with models suggesting conditions are ripe for even further intensification prior to making landfall near Innisfail at this stage. Powerful life threatening winds in excess of 300km/h will make this tropical cyclone the most powerful in recent years. Category five cyclones have been reported off the Western Australian north west coast but with a much greater population density, the most critical threats are for storm surges in low lying areas. Much of Queensland’s centres such as Townsville and Mackay have been built on flood plains making them vulnerable to storm surge threats and flooding.

Tropical Cyclone Yasi aiming for north Queensland

admin — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:33:41 +0000

As if Queensland has not had enough disasters, Tropical Cyclone Yasi is intendifying as it heads west towards the Queensland coastline – currently category 3 and organising into a large circulation in the Coral Sea.

Tropical Cyclone Anthony hits Bowen coastline

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:03:16 +0000

Shortly after a Tropical Cyclone Bianca hit Western Australia, Tropical Cyclone Anthony hit the region near Bowen packing winds of 130km/h and causing extensive flooding with flood warnings extending from Mackay and Townsville.

Meanwhile, yet another tropical cyclone Yasi is anticipated to hit the Queensland coast later in the week in perhaps the first season to produce above average number of tropical cyclones in years. This is most likely related to a very strong La Nina phase and above average sea surface temperatures in the Coral Sea.