Storm Season 08/09: Storm 12, A Commentary

Good to have another storm! Today wasn’t hot, even when I was out of air conditioning I was only hot for a bit at about quarter to one, and I was wearing two shirts so no arguing. The rest of the day it didn’t bother me too much to wear a snow jacket around.
The sky was typically March clear, nothing much to worry about. I knew that there was going to be a storm tonight but I didn’t really worry about it too much.
As per my afternoon exercise plan I walked home from the train station and then when I got home and had a bowl of custard I was surprised at how cold I was, I mean the fan was on, there was a slight breeze but I was really cold. That isn’t how you should feel after a 2km walk. (2km sounds pretty pathetic and yes it is, but it’ll do.)
So I stuck my head out the window and was surprised to discover that beyond the clear blue skies that stood in plain view there was actually a cloud. A big dark cloud. Anyway things continued in my afternoon without much event until 4:30pm when I checked the warnings on the BoM site and discovered a sever thunderstorm with large hailstones was going to destroy my house in 15 minutes.

There was a mad rush to get in all the washing, (only after I’d tweeted to the world of course) an activity during which my sister was bitten by probably an ant and left unable to move. Fortunately the rain held off. Then at 5pm I headed out to the observation area in the carport and was pleased to discover it was so dark I needed to turn on the outside lights. The wind then picked up an enormous deal and I rushed to storm proof that area. Then the entire street filled with smoke. So dense you could see it obscuring vision as you looked across the road, and you could smell it. I’m not sure why there was smoke, but the rain got rid of it.
My sister came out observe and after a few photos the storm began for real at 5:08pm.

There was a blue bit on the radar right before the chaos of the orange and we stood outside waiting for the orange which seemed never to come, so I came back inside and checked the radar again and the orange had evaporated around us! Nonetheless I stayed outside where the rain did eventually become heavier and the wind picked up and it was generally pretty cool.

Finally at 6pm I declared it was over and went inside and watched the Channel 9 news. This was fun because aside from talking about the storm for a bit, the background to their studio is a live feed of Brisbane City, so the whole news we got real time lightning in the background. Fantastic. They warned that another line of storms was forming behind and not to go outside, however these storms didn’t bring us the chaos or hail promised. Nor the blackouts however thousands of other people got that. Nobody has been hurt from this storm though.

I liked this storm, I would have liked it a lot more if it hadn’t evaporated around me but hey that is life sometimes. I may post photos here later but not for now. Final statistics:

Final Statistics:
Wind: yes
Rain: yes
Lightning: yes
Hail: no
Blackout: no
House damage: no
Car damage: no
Human damage: no

Side yard: flooded
Car-tracks: wet
Breezeway 1: flooded
Breezeway 2: partially wet
Front Yard: flooded
Carport: dry
Inside the house: dry
The well: won’t be in this report much longer because somebody put a palm tree on top of it.

Total score:
I liked it. I think I’ve said everything I need to about it. The second line of storms just brought more rain and lightning. Meh. Good all the same.

Brisbane storm 16th March 2009:
Total Score: 6/10

Seeing as you are reading this review on the interwebz you are probably aware that the interwebz contain such wonderful things as storm reviews. Well you can now see everyone’s thoughts, including mine, via Twitter. Having a Twitter profile is helpful but as far as I’m aware not mandatory.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23bnestorm&source=navbar&category=search
Also see my sister's post: http://emmagunders.blogspot.com/2009/03/live-blogging-storm.html