Date: 12/05/2008
Breaking Weather News - Thunder for eastern Down Under
Sam Terry, 12 May 2008After over a week of clear skies, chilly mornings and sunny days, something different has finally come to parts of eastern Australia.
For the last week a belt of high pressure has been dominating most of the country’s weather. As of today, a trough has made its way across QLD and NSW, triggering a series of storms throughout eastern NSW and southeast QLD.
The storms initially fired up at around 8am this morning in the both the Central and Northwest Slopes and Plains districts. They have been gradually steered northeast. One set, which started near Dubbo, hit Coonabarabran at around 2:30 this afternoon, but only dropped off less than a millimetre of rain.
These storms have been helped by a significantly cool mass of air above northern NSW. This air is spreading east and south and may bring a storm to Sydney tomorrow.
So far, no severe weather warning has been issued for NSW or QLD.
Breaking Weather News - Warm streak in WA longest in years
Brett Dutschke, 8 May 2008It's been 25 years since Kalgoorlie had eight consecutive days warmer than 24 degrees in May, according to weatherzone.com.au.
Today was Kalgoorlie's seventh day-in-a-row of such warmth and is a chance to break their record of 11 consecutive May days above 24 set in 1959.
This continual warmth is affecting much of the Goldfields, Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley due to persistent easterly winds blowing across Australia's interior.
Warm easterlies will persist until early next week when the 'blocking high' budges far enough east to allow a decent cool change to take effect.
That cool change however, will have little or no impact in the Pilbara and Kimberley.
Other towns experiencing an unusually long May warm spell are Wiluna and Meekatharra which have now both had five days-in-a-row above 30 degrees, their longest in 18 years.
Breaking Weather News - Increasing showers and storms in the east
Paul Graham, 11 May 2008Showers and storms are increasing in eastern parts of the country, according to weatherzone.com.au.
A large high is shifting surface winds around to the northeast lifting humidity levels, while the upper atmosphere is cooling due to an upper trough. This combination is increasing instability across northeast NSW and southeast Queensland, resulting in the showers and storms.
Most of the activity has been coastal due to warm sea surface temperatures. A few storms developed inland on the ranges this afternoon where they should become more numerous in the next couple of days as the upper atmosphere continues to cool.
Falls are likely to remain brief and isolated inland but could be more sustained in coastal areas where there is potential for some heavy falls.
Today, Gayndah received 4mm in 10 minutes. The highest recorded since 9am was 9mm at Mt Glorious.
based on data from
