Storm Damage

[Dr Arthur]

Had a great but intense storm go through yesterday afternoon that knocked out the power grid to my locality. Went off at about 5:30 pm and was not restored until about 4:30am. Was a lot of damage with power poles twisted and splintered like match sticks. SO glad I have off grid capability as my house remained an island of light in the dark due to the lack of the usual light sources.

On my property bananas were twisted off at the base where a small tornado had gone through. Despite infrequent we do occasionally get them being spawned from the storms in this area. I had a 400 litre aerobin compost bin on a concrete base out the back which was full of finely mulched garden waste. This garden waste is damp and each litre weighs more that 1kg so the full 400 litre bin would have weighed well over 400+ kg. How I know it was a tornado is that this bin was lifted and thrown across yard. The lid was disassembled and thrown several hundred feet across the yard.

Luckily I had cut back all the trees near the main house and none of these had any major damage but there were small branches and leaves all over the place. Guess I will spend the day cleaning everything up. The local weather bureau has forecast more severe storms for this afternoon so will just see what else happens.

 

[Torch]

Had a great but intense storm go through yesterday afternoon that knocked out the power grid to my locality. Went off at about 5:30 pm and was not restored until about 4:30am. Was a lot of damage with power poles twisted and splintered like match sticks. SO glad I have off grid capability as my house remained an island of light in the dark due to the lack of the usual light sources.

On my property bananas were twisted off at the base where a small tornado had gone through. Despite infrequent we do occasionally get them being spawned from the storms in this area. I had a 400 litre aerobin compost bin on a concrete base out the back which was full of finely mulched garden waste. This garden waste is damp and each litre weighs more that 1kg so the full 400 litre bin would have weighed well over 400+ kg. How I know it was a tornado is that this bin was lifted and thrown across yard. The lid was disassembled and thrown several hundred feet across the yard.

Luckily I had cut back all the trees near the main house and none of these had any major damage but there were small branches and leaves all over the place. Guess I will spend the day cleaning everything up. The local weather bureau has forecast more severe storms for this afternoon so will just see what else happens.

Good Luck!

 

[Dr Arthur]

On Friday night got 25mm (1 inch) of rain then on Sunday night 14mm (about1/2 inch). Now getting a heat wave. Yesterday got to 35C (95F) today is forecast to be 38C (100F) and tomorrow is forecast to be 40C (104F). The heat has sucked the moisture out of the ground from the rain. It would be more bearable if it were dry heat but the humidity has stayed high and above 70%.

Is being very hard to tolerate 35C+ with 80+% humidity. Glad I can have the AC run off the solar power. Has been so bad it has even exhausted and stressed the dogs. Was able to put them in the AC for them to recover. Have now developed strong coastal winds at times from the east with more storms forecast for the afternoon and evenings. These will probably be dry heat storms with lots of lightning so will need to watch out for potential fires starting. Had lots of rain over the last few months and now the current weather is drying everything out so the fuel load is high. Facing a typical Aussie summer fire season now.

I feel a lot of sympathy for the people in LA and the firefighters as I fully understand from personal experience what it is like dealing with fires in these conditions. Already so hot you don't feel like you can do anything and then you are forced to.

 

[Dr Arthur]

Had more storms go through this afternoon and this series of storms had a combination of tornadoes and waterspouts. Thankfully they were all small and none came near my place and were confined to the local scrub. At least this one did not hit my place like the one a few days ago