Jeez, Lisa_Spyder.

Bill Douglas · 03-11-2010, 07:57 PM

You can keep your Melbourne weather.

The same weather bomb has just hit Wellington. I'm pleased to say the roof is still on and we have electricity.

Not trying to be over dramatic, but I'm 51 and I've never seen anything like this before. When the wind hit the house was jumping around so much it felt like a really BIG earthquake.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Someone cue the tipped over chair

lisa_spyder · 03-11-2010, 08:40 PM

Bill,

Everything OK? It was/is certainly the biggest bloody storm I've ever been through (that includes a cyclone in Qld - somehow this seemed bigger and more wild). How has Wellington fared? Nasty, nasty stuff this wild weather...

Spoke to our insurance brokers again today - everything is fine for us; we're covered for whatever we need and I can take all the time I want/need to get the paperwork in.

Broker was saying to me that there is A NINE MONTH WAIT to repair hail damaged cars in Melbourne - it's that bad....I was trying to get some roofing contractors out here just to quote for me - they are already 2 months behind (in less than a week). Great - we have a steep pitched roof. I hate getting up there. I hate it more than Mike and he is supposedly the one who doesn't like heights, not me

. But we have a few dislodged tiles that I noticed....so I guess I'm gonna have to 'suck it up' as they say and get up there with him to put them back in place before we get more rain....that is unless I can coerce the roofing guys to get here early next week and do it for me....

Bill Douglas · 03-11-2010, 09:08 PM

Phew, everything is OK thanks. It's passed over now. On the news it said lots of trees and power wires are down. I was checking on the neighbours houses to make sure outdoor furniture wasn't blowing through windows and I felt like a lunatic walking around in hail that felt like it was going to scalp me, plus 140 km winds.

I hope everyone is OK as I was on the deck watching a guy surfing on a long board thinking how bizarre it was the sky being so black then boom. It was a big onshore so he would get washed back to shore but the longboard would have been a handfull to hang onto.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

I'm sorry, I thought you were joking. I didn't know that OZ and NZ had that type of storm. I thought the weather was generally California like.

my bad

onewhippedpuppy · 03-12-2010, 03:10 AM

Does OZ have tornados, or are they a rare event? It's starting to be that time of year around these parts.

Dottore · 06:57 AM

The weather is absolutely nuts all over the globe.

But please don't anyone call it climate change.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Has the drought eased in OZ yet?

scottmandue · 03-12-2010, 06:50 AM

What is this "weather" you speak of?

onewhippedpuppy · 03-12-2010, 08:41 AM

Quote:

The weather is absolutely nuts all over the globe.

But please don't anyone call it climate change.

I thought it was global warming? Stop confusing me Al Gore, I don't know what to be afraid of!

kach22i · kach22i's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dottore

The weather is absolutely nuts all over the globe.

But please don't anyone call it climate change.

Okay I won't, I'll be calling it Climate Menopause from now on.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/m/menopause.htm

Quote:

Menopause (also known as the "Change of life" or climacteric) is a stage of the human female reproductive cycle that occurs as the ovaries stop producing estrogen, causing the reproductive system to gradually shut down.

http://dailygumboot.ca/2010/01/the-menopausal-math-teacher-and-other-tales-of-cultural-influence/

Bill Douglas · 03-12-2010, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-beard

I didn't know that OZ and NZ had that type of storm. I thought the weather was generally California like.

Umm, yes and no. Australia has better weather than us, but strange things happening about once a year like fires, floods or hail. NZ has a bit lower temps but nothing really weird happens - other than yesterday. NZ is a bit like Northern Ca, and maybe Aus a bit like San Diego area.

I was joking to Lisa on her earlier thread that she should come to Wellington. Wellington is know to have the worst (windiest) weather in all of Australiasia. And we go to Byron Bay or Queensland for some seroius beach weather.

Aussie draught. I know it's rained on the coast of Queensland, in my favorite holiday spots, every day for weeks. But where it's needed I don't know.

m21sniper · 03-12-2010, 12:43 PM

Aus is massive. I imagine they have the whole gamut of weather types.

lisa_spyder · 03-12-2010, 12:51 PM

red-beard,

you're forgiven

here's my thread on the storm last Saturday. Check out the video; it was a whopper and no-one that I have spoken to can remember Melbourne having a storm like this before.

Massive storm here yesterday - hail like large lemons!

Does Oz have tornadoes? Not usually and certainly not on the scale that you guys are used to. They are rare here, but last Sunday Shepparton was hit by one in the second storm front that came across the State. I saw some pics of it making landfall...scary. Shep is north of Melbourne and is where most of our fruit is grown, particularly stone fruit (it's stone fruit season now here) so these guys have been hit really hard. Our growers have copped a tough time of late.

In the first storm front on Saturday, Bacchus Marsh a town about an hour west of Melbourne was hit by a tornado too, along with the hail and massive amount of rain. Lots of damage there as well.

This was a freak 'super cell' storm. I watched it on the weather radar and it spread down from mid NSW in a thick line due South and across most of Victoria.

Queensland has had constant heavy rain for days and days too. 80% of the State has been declared a flood disaster. You guys ever heard of Birdsville in the outback? Well it was under water. Northern and Central Coast NSW have been flooded that many times in the past 12 months that I have lost count. Whilst down south, South Australia and Victoria have been in drought. We've had big rain events in the East of the State a few times causing major flooding and damage; but no way to harness the water since the idiot government refuses to build a dam in the area that has been long needed....a whole other story that one

.

So, are we still in drought? There have some reports that are cautiously optimistic that the 13 year drought is coming to an end here. We've had a much milder summer than last year in most areas of Vic so that helps; our local paper in West Gippsland reported only this week that we had a dry February but there's a 50% chance of exceeding the median rainfall through Autumn so who knows?

Problem is whether we really are getting the rain where and when it's needed. At this stage and from what I know, I'd say that's probably a no....but I sure hope I'm wrong.