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Flash floods happen suddenly (hence the name), forming in less than six hours. This sets them apart from “regular” floods, such as river floods, which can often be predicted days in advance. They are caused when a heavy rain falls over low-lying areas, especially when the soil is already saturated. They happen when rainfall intensity and duration match up, in a very bad way. More than half the fatalities happen when people try to cross flooded intersections in their cars. This is because people are generally not very good at judging the depth and danger of flooded streets. (They can’t actually see the roadway surface, which might be a big deep hole.) While two feet of water doesn’t seem like much at all, especially if you are safely inside a big, heavy car, it is enough to carry you and the car away. (Another fact we tend to forget: cars are buoyant.) According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of USA: – ”Water weighs 1,010 kg per cubic metre and typically flows downstream at 10 to 20 kph. When a vehicle stalls in the water, the water’s momentum is transferred to the car. For each foot the water rises 226 kg of lateral force are applied to the car. But the biggest factor is buoyancy. For each foot the water rises up the side of the car, the car displaces 2,040 kg of water. In effect, the car weighs 2,040 kg less for each foot the water rises.”
Do not be tempted to drive across a flooded roadway.(”Don’t drown; turn around.”) If you find your vehicle stalled in a flooded road way, leave it and seek higher ground. (”Better wet than dead.”)
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Kay and Patrick would like to express their thanks to all our sponsors and visitors to the site during 2009, and especially those who have made known to us their interest and encouragement.
More than 2,000 passengers have been rescued after spending hours trapped in the undersea Channel Tunnel linking France and Britain after four trains broke down due to poor weather conditions.
Angry travellers said they had been left with no power, air conditioning, food or water.
Rail operator Eurostar said the breakdowns had resulted from technical problems caused by the temperature difference inside the tunnel and freezing conditions outside.
“It is snowing in northern France, it’s very cold, conditions are very bad,” a spokesman for Eurostar, operated by French rail operator SNCF, its Belgian counterpart SNCB and British government-owned LCR, said.
Remember the time we could go and buy a penny banger from the corner store or try to light a damp squib – or watched in awe as our dad lit a Roman Candle, spun the Catherine Reel on the garden fence before using a milk bottle to launch a Snowflake rocket aloft to much oo’s and ahhh’s’
The occasion is celebrated (or rather remembered) on the 5th November. On this date, in 1605, a group of Roman Catholics tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament, with the government, King James I, his Queen and their son.
On the 18th November 1998 we spent a night expecting a ‘free’ firework display of a meteor shower in the wake of comet Tempel-Tuttle. This event happens only once in every 33 years. To many the event turned out to be very much a ‘damp squib’, especially after all the publicity and sky watching.
A computer glitch has resulted in a loss of email addresses. Will all weatherwatchers who have sent emails to malenyweather@ozemail.com.au in the past few weeks and received no acknowledgement todate please re-transmit their messages.
Week’s Weather
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May
2009
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Rain 9.00am
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Evap
mm.
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Bright Sun hours
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Cloud 3.00pm
|
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Mon 4th
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Nil
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2.2 mm
|
7.0
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2Cu²,3Sc,2Ac
|
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Tues 5th
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Nil
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2.8 mm
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5.5
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3Sc,3Ns
|
|
Wed 6th
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4.4 mm
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3.0 mm
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4.3
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2Cu,2Cu²,3Ac
|
|
Thur 7th
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15.0 mm
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1.6 mm
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5.3
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2Cu²,2Cb,2Ac,2Ns
|
|
Fri 8th
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Nil
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1.6 mm
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7.5
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8Ci
|
|
Sat 9th
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Nil
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2.0 mm
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7.8
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1Cu,2Ac²
|
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Sun 10th
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Nil
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2.0 mm
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8.0
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nil
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An extensive high over the Bight covering the whole of Australia was mainly responsible for our weather on the Range. On Wednesday, moist maritime south-easterly winds brought in a little more than the isolated showers forecast and it rained more or less continuously from 3.30am until midnight. Overnight temperatures were above average until Saturday morning when the mercury fell to ten degrees.
Devastating storms in Asia
Over the past few days devastating tropical storms have struck Nepal, India and the Philippines. In southern and western Nepal 15 people were reported killed and more than 170 injured. In West Bengal, India 11 people were killed and 25 injured Flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains left 20 people dead in the eastern Philippines and nearly 50,000 displaced.
Four hurricane names retired
Three hurricane names in the Atlantic—Gustav, Ike and Paloma—and one in the eastern North Pacific—Alma—have been retired from the official name rotation by the WMO Hurricane Committee because of the deaths and damage they caused in 2008. The Committee issues the list of potential names for tropical cyclones to be used every six years for both ocean basins. These names would have been used again in 2014 and will be replaced by Gonzalo, Isaias, Paulette and Amanda, respectively.
Floods in Brazil
218,000 people across a swath of northern Brazil three times the size of Alaska have fled the worst rainfall and flooding in decades, braving newly formed rivers teeming with anacondas, alligators and legless reptiles known as “worm lizards” whose bite is excruciating. Already, 36 people have been killed in the flooding, sparked by unusually heavy rains that have been falling for two months on 10 of Brazil’s 26 states. Alligators swam through the city of Santarem, civil defence official Walkiria Coelho said. Scorpions congregated on the same high ground as people escaping the rising water. No injuries were reported. Rivers were still rising as much as 30cm a day in Maranhao. The mighty Rio Negro River that feeds the Amazon was just one metre below a record set in 1953 near the jungle city of Manaus, and experts said the record could be broken by June. In the jungle city of Altamira, more rain fell in three hours than normally falls in two months.
Swine Influenza
The influence of meteorological and climate conditions in the transmission patterns of swine influenza and its possible seasonality are as yet not adequately understood and are the subject of ongoing research.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) works on aspects of weather, climate and health with the World Health Organization (WHO). While there are some indications that influenza epidemics may be associated with weather conditions, non-climatic factors, including virus type, existing levels of immunity in the population and human behaviour are generally considered to be more closely related to epidemics.
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