Late November 2023 weather event

 I was astonished to see the BoM weather forecast for Mallacoota show rainfall for 29 November listed as 50mm to 110 mm followed by 30mm to 90 mm on the 30th.  In retrospect, that seems to have been one of the BoM's better forecasts!  

My weather station ended with 96.4mm of rain on calendar 29/11 and at 0500hrs on 30/11 has already recorded 28.4mm.  The BoM at the airport have recorded 89.2mm for 29/11 and 24.2 for 30/11.  Somewhat surprisingly they only recorded 46.8mm on Gabo for 29/11 but are now more in step with 33.6 to 0500 on the 30th.

Putting matters in a longer perspective by 0700 on the 30th we are up to 210mm for the month.  That is our 3rd highest November (I hope we don't get to be #2, but it only needs another 50mm) and 23rd out of all 587 months for which I have data.  (While typing that, another mm came down, elevating this month to #20 all time.)

The first set of images show the 512 km composite radar plot centred on Bairnsdale.

29 November 1250hrs

29 November 1523 hrs - note the storms from Bateman's Bay North.

30 November 0500hrs,

30 November 1349hrs: it seemed that the rain had calmed down, but in the last hour he have had a series of squalls, delivering over 30mm and totally overwhelming the gutters.

I will put up a table comparing various sites when the even is over (or at least has calmed down).    At present the most interesting aspect is comparing the rainfall between 0900 and 1500 on 30 November.

BoM Airport             23.8mm

BoM Gabo Island     36.4mm

Angophora Drive     43.2mm

Clarke St                  40.0mm

Most of the fall at Angophora has come in the 2 hours between noon and 1400hrs and featured some fierce squalls with maximum rain rates of 139 and 109 mm/hr.  That explains the variation between the sites.  Also of interest is that on the 29th Gabo had much less rain than the airport: today it has reversed!

I went for a drive (to Bucklands) as Lakeside Drive was closed and took a few snaps.  This is the gully opposite our house.  I have never seen this much water here.

Bucklands Boat hire needs a boat to get to the boats!

The Narrows are a bit wider

A gully between Karbeethong and Sunny Corner.  Again never seen water like this.

These folk at Karbeethong Jetty seemed to be having a toughish time getting all their kit off the houseboats and into their cars.  I think they would also have some memories of the trip back to the Jetty.