Maleny Weather

 ‘St Swithin’s day if thou dost rain

‘For forty days it will remain

‘St Swithin’s day if thou be fair

‘For forty days ‘twill rain nae mair

 This is one of the several days from which, in folklore, the weather for a subsequent period is dictated. In popular belief, if it rains on St. Swithin’s Day, it will rain for 40 days, but, if it is fair, 40 days of fair weather will follow. St. Swithin was bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862. At his request he was buried in the churchyard, where rain and the steps of passers-by might fall on his grave. According to legend, after his body was moved inside the cathedral on July 15, 971, a great storm ensued.

Weather frequently changes around midsummer, and thus the tradition that this day influences the weather may stem from ancient pagan belief. On the European continent similar beliefs are attached to other saints (e.g.St, MÉDARD June 8, France).

However, according to the UK met Office, this ‘old wives tale’ is nothing other than a myth. It has been put to the test on 55 occasions, when it has been wet on St Swithin’s Day and 40 days of rain did not follow.

This South Pacific storm formed between 1^st and 4^th June 1994, and while not unusual, it affected a large number of yachts on route between New Zealand and Tonga and led to New Zealand’s largest air/sea rescue operation. Six yachts were abandoned and their crews picked up and one with its crew of three was lost.

This was not the cyclone season and the storm that developed was never officially named as such. In any case it had no core of central warm air characteristic of cyclones and hardly reached gale force winds while it was in the tropics.

None the less, its effects in the subtropics were devastating.

On June 2^nd, a slight kink in the isobars of the synoptic chart near Vanuatu was the only indicator of what was about to take place.

The low pressure system developed and started to move south. Of particular significance is the area of high pressure over New Zealand that brought in a supply of cold, low level air from the Antarctic. Cold air does not mix easily with warm and the effect of this inflow was to force the existing warm air upwards. An upper level system was active and withdrew rising air faster than the incoming cold stream was able to replace it. Barometric pressure of the surface was reduced still further as the system increased in size.

This phenomenon of cold air being drawn into a deepening low pressure system is sometimes known as meteorological ‘bomb’

The media headlines today bring to mind the Melbourne Dust Storm on 8^th February 1983. This was when south-eastern Australia was coming out of one of the worst droughts since European settlement leaving behind very sparse vegetation cover and a great deal of dry exposed red dust in the Mallee region. Strong north-westerly winds moving ahead of a cold front whipped up the dust into a fast moving wall creating a dramatic sight as it towered above the Melbourne skyline.

In 1852 another notable dust storm occurred in the Melbourne area on Sunday 19^th December when The Tmes in London reported ‘a man riding his horse on the outskirts of Melbourne was unable to see the ears of his horse due to the streaming volume of hot, stinging dust’.

1286

King Alexander III of Scotland died when he was blown off a cliff at Inverkeithing, Scotland by a violent easterly gale.

1925

The infamous Tri-State Tornado raced 219 miles across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. to become the deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. The storm left 695 people dead, 2,027 injured and an estimated $17 million dollars in damage with 15,000 homes totally levelled.

1978

28 people were killed and 300 injured as a tornado touched down and stayed on the ground for over three miles in the northern suburbs of New Delhi, India

1990.

An intense hailstorm struck the Sydney region in Australia producing strong winds and heavy rain in a swathe from Camden to Narrabeen, causing extensive damage.  Hailstones were measured up to 3 inches in diameter.  The total insured damage was estimated at $314 million Australian dollars,

2006

Cyclone Larry, the most powerful storm to hit Australia in 3 decades, slammed onto the Australian coast south of Cairns in the town of Innisfail with estimated sustained winds of 115 mph with gusts to 150 mph devastating sugar and banana plantations and leaving thousands homeless.  Damage totalled a half billion dollars.  Miraculously, no lives were lost and no serious injuries were reported.  At one point, Category 5 Larry packed wind gusts to Category 5 strength of 180 mph.