Rainfall - from Hunter to Southern Highlands

Hunter and Central Coast
rainfall records 9.6.07
You might have seen the pictures of the rain, wind and flooding in the Hunter Valley. Here are the Stats to go with the pictures.

The Hunter River valley is subject to occasional serious flooding, when conditions are right. Usually, as in this case, when a "low" moves down the coast from Queensland, and then intensifies, and sits there lashing the coast.

This map is freely available from the Bureau of Meteorology website, which shows rainfall and flood warnings

http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/nsw/midnorth.shtml

You can tell the screen what you wish to "Display on Map" (top right hand section) - rainfall last 24 hours (till 9:00am) -i.e., yesterday. You can also select rainfall since 9:00am (which is usually what one wants to find out).There is also another option, where you can select river conditions.

The trick with this map is that the various "readings" are "clickable" select Singleton, and a box pops up telling you whatever it is you have selected - rainfall last 24 hours, rainfall since 9:00 am, or river heights (flood warnings).

"Pasha Bulker"
Photo: Sue Warlin SMH
You can read about the shipwreck of the bulk carrier "Pasha Bulker" on Nobby's Beach at Newcastle in the Sydney Morning Herald here.





Photo: Mark Baker/AP.
Associated Press (on Nine MSM) carries a different aspect of the story.
This photo shows how close the ship is to the beach.






By contrast Robertson has been only relatively wet, not "flooded". We got our bucketing back in February, as you might remember. We got more rain than fell in the Hunter Valley this time. But unlike the Hunter, our area is localised, so we do not produce the large volumes of flood waters, also, being on a hill, we don't flood easily.

For future reference, you can go to this site, and then click "save as favourite" (or "bookmark" the page.












My back deck in rain
This is the view from my back deck in such weather (a quick shot, before one blows away). Grey skies and horizontal rain do not lend themselves to lengthy photographing sessions.

I do hope that the central coast and Hunter Valleys managed to get some of this water in their catchment dams, as I know the central coast in particular has been desperately short of drinking water.

The rainfall in the Warragamba Dam catchment has not been heavy - mostly of the order of 30 mm, so not much run-off will occur. Still, it is better than nothing.