Weather in Australia

**John** · 03-07-2010, 03:23 PM

What is happening to our weather ???. Most of Queensland outback is now suffering the worst floods in 120 years with damage bill to be 100's of millions of dollars. Other Australian states are also having flood problems. I am sure other members will be along to tell their states weather problems.
Would love to hear how things are in the other nations.

**Adrian Roberts** · 03-07-2010, 07:55 PM

John

Are you ok in the floods?

Its a sign of the times that you get an answer from someone in England about the weather in Australia, but attached is a picture that my sister-in-law sent us from Melbourne, showing the size of the hailstones they had yesterday. Apparently her car is a write-off; the rest of the family cars had cracked windscreens, and the house had three broken windows and dislodged roof tiles.

Here in London we are still in the grip of the worst winter since 1980/81 - and even longer in some other parts of the country - in terms of sustained cold weather and at least two major episodes of snow. Last week we thought it was over, but today, although it was sunny and dry, there was a biting north wind.

Adrian

**John** · 03-08-2010, 12:23 AM

Hi Adrian,
No, I was not caught up in the floods. They are close to us but we are safe as we have no major rivers near us. Some of our streets have flooded due to blocked drains.
Melbourne really copped it on the week-end with heavy rains, hail and strong winds. Homes were destroyed , cars in car sale yards were damaged.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/...torms-possible

**Kitty** · 03-08-2010, 01:46 PM

that is a hailball?! Good grief.

Sorry guys but here in the NW of England we are currently enjoying brisk spring days with bright blue skies, no clouds and gorgeous landscapes coming into the first signs of the impending summer. Now I've said that i am sure we'll get hammered with rain.

**Adrian Roberts** · 03-08-2010, 07:30 PM

As I said in my reply to my brother: Its dangerous being Abroad!

**Cobber** · 03-08-2010, 09:55 PM

Yeah we had a bad day large hail stones all over town up to the size of a decent lemon in some places. Hail stones piled up several feet high in some corners. We also got plenty of rain a severe rain event with the hail, and thank the gods some decent follow up rain falls in the following days and even today Tuesday. The skies have been over cast and the winds cold which is great as it allows the water to soak in instead of just evaporating in 30+c degrees which is what has happened much of the time over past 15 years.

We want more rain down here as our water storage levels are still very low it is at 34.7% today.
We wouldn't mind mild floods in the bush. Preferably before sowing crops or well after they have sprouted.

Alice Springs the north central deserts are flooding as the rains which usually fall right up north have been large enough to encompass a very large area from The Alice and north /Eastern surrounds right through into western and central Qld. All the creeks etc are running and they are expecting a large flow into the Murray Darling system, However we must not forget those in southern, South Australia who seem to keep on missing out on a lot of the rain.
They are using this event to work out just how much water the Qlders, NSW and Vics take before i the water eventually gets to Sth Aust's Murray system and the mouth of the Murray, which keeps trying to seal its self due to little water flow, the irrigators take it out and bugger all is left for natural river flow.
Many people wonder why the Marray/Darling river system and surrounds are dying it's because they rely on heavy water flow which causes floods all along it untill it flows out to sea at a decent pace. And these floods no longer happen as the water is sent elsewhere.

**spidge** · 03-09-2010, 12:32 AM

The foyer of the shopping centre I work at started dropping plaster from the 30 foot ceiling and the shop flooded.

No internet until I got home tonight.

**Kitty** · 03-09-2010, 07:55 AM

it sounds like you lot are having a whale of a time down there. Remind me never to visit. All of you stay safe and keep us updated.

**Oggie2620** · 03-10-2010, 10:59 AM

Kitty

I agree with you - you guys keep yourself safe... Mind you its supposed to be spring here and theres a very chilly biting wind today and big black storm clouds so may be winter has not had its last blow yet!

Dee

**Cobber** · 03-10-2010, 09:41 PM

Cold for March but no more rain here since the Tuesday. Over cast at times no mind though, we all get extreme weather events and as allways we rebuild and keep going.

The city actually has much less liter as it all got washed away, much of which gets caught in litter traps. Though it was replaced by green litter, tree branches and masses of leaves etc. This in my area is good as they allow the small stuff to lay and rot on the earth helping to give the ground some life after 15 years of drought.

What they have done to non native trees esp Oaks, willow etc,they have spread several metres of hard mulch around the base of tree a thick line of (bark etc) to kill off the grass and fertilizing the ground, thus allowing much more water to enter the ground for trees. Most European and Northern Hemisphere trees are serverly lacking leaf growth at top of trees as they are not getting anywhere the amount of water they need, it is a sad sad site in places.

The Hail/rain storm caused the streets to flash flood in city where it is hilly, this caused some astonishment to the stupid sensationalising media.