Snapshot
Storm over Melbourne 28 February 2015 Laura O’Brien
In this issue’s extended Snapshot, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science postdoc Laura O’Brien takes us through the storms on the last day of summer this year.
It was 7:55 pm on St Kilda beach. It had been a hot day (~33º C) with lots of people out and about on the beaches around Elwood and St Kilda. I was out for a run at the time but knew there was a storm coming so waited down on St Kilda beach at the end of my run. As the sky darkened most people left the beach, however some stayed to watch the storm and there were many people still out walking. This picture was taken as the first of two rain bands approached (see the Bureau’s radar image opposite).
Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Vol. 28 page 46
I stayed to watch as it moved in and the lightning kicked off around the bay. As soon as the second band hit I had to run home immediately. The winds picked up so much that the sand was being whipped up and the trees were swaying far too much for my liking. Most of the remaining people down on the beach made a quick exit. Excepts from the Bureau’s monthly weather report (from: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/mwr/aus/mwraus-201502.pdf) explain the conditions on the day: