Yesterday was a good day to go to the opera. To start with, the weather was awful - unrelenting rain and cool temperatures. And things are getting worse. Topical cyclone 'Oswald' (yes, they all have names) formed in the Coral Sea a week or so ago and subsequently moved south along the Queensland Coast and into Northern NSW. It wasn't a big storm like the one that hit New York last year, but it has been very persistent in both its track and damaging rainfall. Much of SE Queensland has had devastating floods along with a rare series of tornadoes.
Our turn arrived on Saturday afternoon when light falls of rain started and now, about 40 hours later, it is still raining and the forecasts have this continuing for another 24 hours.Interestingly, the eye of the former cyclone passed over Armidale at about 6 am this morning and the rain abated at the centre. Now it is pouring again and the winds, though not storm force, are picking up. However, the rain has been steady and has yielded just 50+ mm. We're not getting the worst of the weather. That's reserved for the coast about 150 m east of Armidale where there are storm-force winds, huge seas, massive rainfall totals, and major flooding. Some places, Coffs harbour included, have had 200 mm of rain (about 8 inches) during the last 24 hours and closer to 250 mm (10 inches) since the rain started. If we add another 100 mm today the total for this rain event down there Coffs Harbour will have something like half of the annual rainfall expected on the south coast of England! And in just 3 days.
Fortunately, I decided to revive the lawns around our house with a large dose of fertiliser a couple of weeks ago and now I'm reaping the reward - lush green grass. A down-side to all this will be the need to mow the blasted turf repeatedly. A further minus is that Max won't be able to go to the skate-park to ride his scooter and BMX bike and will be at a loose end for the next day and half. After yesterday's performance at the opera, I suspect a suggested visit to the art gallery is off the menu. It's also much too cold for the town swimming pool. Anyway, that's likely to be closed, especially if inundated by a flooding Dumaresq creek. Ideas anyone?
AS
PS I've just been down to the creek to see if it was flooding and indeed the waters are rising fast and several causeways are closed to traffic. I found one open and parked the car in the middle of the causeway to take this picture. Water was just beginning to flow across it and closure must be close. And the rain has intensified hugely. It's now monsoonal! By the way I got drenched taking it and I was sitting in the car with the window open! A lot of Australia might be desert, but at last the grass in Armidale is green as the picture shows.
Our turn arrived on Saturday afternoon when light falls of rain started and now, about 40 hours later, it is still raining and the forecasts have this continuing for another 24 hours.Interestingly, the eye of the former cyclone passed over Armidale at about 6 am this morning and the rain abated at the centre. Now it is pouring again and the winds, though not storm force, are picking up. However, the rain has been steady and has yielded just 50+ mm. We're not getting the worst of the weather. That's reserved for the coast about 150 m east of Armidale where there are storm-force winds, huge seas, massive rainfall totals, and major flooding. Some places, Coffs harbour included, have had 200 mm of rain (about 8 inches) during the last 24 hours and closer to 250 mm (10 inches) since the rain started. If we add another 100 mm today the total for this rain event down there Coffs Harbour will have something like half of the annual rainfall expected on the south coast of England! And in just 3 days.
Fortunately, I decided to revive the lawns around our house with a large dose of fertiliser a couple of weeks ago and now I'm reaping the reward - lush green grass. A down-side to all this will be the need to mow the blasted turf repeatedly. A further minus is that Max won't be able to go to the skate-park to ride his scooter and BMX bike and will be at a loose end for the next day and half. After yesterday's performance at the opera, I suspect a suggested visit to the art gallery is off the menu. It's also much too cold for the town swimming pool. Anyway, that's likely to be closed, especially if inundated by a flooding Dumaresq creek. Ideas anyone?
AS
PS I've just been down to the creek to see if it was flooding and indeed the waters are rising fast and several causeways are closed to traffic. I found one open and parked the car in the middle of the causeway to take this picture. Water was just beginning to flow across it and closure must be close. And the rain has intensified hugely. It's now monsoonal! By the way I got drenched taking it and I was sitting in the car with the window open! A lot of Australia might be desert, but at last the grass in Armidale is green as the picture shows.
1 comment:
For Max try Lego or games of Monopoly. Richard.
Post a Comment