Conditions remain favourable for further severe thunderstorm development.

Weather Stuff:

Well…. what can I say? Last nights storms were excellent! The warm and moist tropical air dragged down from the NT by the trough produced some awesome weather. Here is a dot point description of my obs for last night:

21:45 - I first observed lightning to the NW and West of my position. The frequency was around 1 flash/strike per 10 - 20 seconds. The wind was clam. I observed only infrequent light showers.

22:00 - 23:20 - Observed lightning in all directions including directly above my position at a simular rate as mentioned above.

23:20 - 23:30 - The observed lighting rate dropped and become only apparent to the direct west of my position. Towards the west I observed a "line" type feature in the cloud that was illuminated by the lightning. The line feature stretched from the north to the south of my position. I continued to observe the feature until almost over head. I also observed very low scud cloud to the south-west of my position moving very rapidly from the south-east towards the approaching feature.

23:30 - 23:50 - By about this time as the cloud feature I explained above moved over, the wind turned from light easterly to a strong and gusty westerly in an instant. My wind vain was almost stationary pointing east then with one strong gust it immediately swung to the west. At this time very heavy sheets of rain began hit my position. Hopefully I have this event on video.

23:50 - 00:20 - The lightning rate increased dramatically to a flash/strike every 2 - 4 seconds. Some lightning had multiple pulses that hung in the air then decayed away. Several of these strikes appeared so 'large' that covered much of the observable sky in my position. The thunder did not cease during this time. The rain rate was intense, I have heard something along the lines of 16mm in 10 minutes. This caused some flash flooding in the streets.

00:20 - early hours - The odd rumble could be heard and at times very loud thunder would occur sounding like an enormous explosion - not much sleep to be had.

Some more interesting details are, King Island received some 3.5cm hail – Devonport’s min temp was 17c – Dev’s rainfall ‘till 9am was 33mm.

Today has seen 3 Severe Thunderstorm warnings so far and it’s not over yet, mainly for the south of the state.

Fishing Stuff:
Who’s worried about fishing with all this weather goin’ off? :-)

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