Perth's Crazy weather

[Green_pilot_79]

With the crazy storms yesterday in Perth thought i would start a thread and ask of any people that were involved(flying) in and out of these storms. Sure theres some good stories out there :)

[Aerlik]

Not from The West Australian are you, or from C7,9 or 10? Anyone with half a brain would have been heeding the news warnings from early morning (and the BOM website for the severe weather warning which appeared at approx 3pm) and would have been nowhere that weather.

Smells like an attempt by a reporter (there's a huge difference between a reporter and a journalist) doing his/her editor's bidding to add a slant to the saturation (no pun intended) coverage it will get in The Worst Australian.

[Towering Q]

The 'reporting' was a bit over the top. Ask any punter how big the hail was and 'golf balls' always get mentioned.

Good way to end the driest start to a year though.

[mates rates]

And what was the TAF for those coming from 5-8 hours away? Was the BOM on the ball for once in their life?

[Green_pilot_79]

No Repoter here haha. Im just always eager to here from experiences :) im sure there was a few miss approcahes nice crosswinds etc with wind gusts up to 55knots and variable :P

[ZEEBEE]

And what was the TAF for those coming from 5-8 hours away? Was the BOM on the ball for once in their life?

hey Mates,

I'm ready to have a go at our establishments as much as the next person, BUT I have to say that the BOM is remarkably accurate with regards to Perth Wx.

have always been impressed that their temps and wind forecasts are better than 80% accurate (based on temps +/- 1.5C and wind speeds 10klm/hr)

I think you'd find that not many forecasts are much better.

Mind you, when you only have to forecast "clear skies and max temps 32C " day after day, it's easy to get a good track record.

And yes, they did forecast the Thunderstorms that brought this about.
Got the amount of rain a bit wrong, but there's really no telling with Txstorms is there ?

[Chadzat]

I was lucky enough to have a day off yesterday so got to watch the storms roll in from the north. Here are a few shots from my place just east of the city.

Im sure you guys up north during the wet would get some corkers, but I have never been under such a lightning intensive cell before. There would have been at least 1 bolt every second for a good 5 mins at its peak.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/6075/perthstorms2011.jpg

http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/4118/perthstorms2016.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3917/perthstorms3007.jpg

[dream747]

A mate of mine said he saw the words "HOLY COW" in the Metar for YPJT for a moment!

[Aye Ess]

How would we ever have measured hailstones if golfballs hadn't been invented?

[PyroTek]

Aye Ess: we still have ping pong balls, but they are too light to hurt a fly:E

[Worrals in the wilds]

How would we ever have measured hailstones if golfballs hadn't been invented?
...or dam capacity before the invention of the Olympic Sized Swimming Pool :rolleyes:

[Towering Q]

or dam capacity before the invention of the Olympic Sized Swimming Pool

...or Sydney Harbours for the big comparisons.

Nice photos Chadzat, these events are much more enjoyable when viewed from the ground.:eek:

[blueloo]

didnt we use teaspoons? Warragamba dam contains 48000000000000000000000000000000000000 teaspoons ? :} Love to hear a reporter spit out a number like that on TV.

[jportzer]

didnt we use teaspoons? Warragamba dam contains 48000000000000000000000000000000000000 teaspoons ? Careful with your zeros. Warragamba dam capacity: 2027000 ML (megalitres). Number of teaspoons in a litre: 203 , thus 203 000 in a megalitre
Total number of teaspoons: 411 481 000 000 , or 411 billion. Still a smaller number than the USA's national debt!

With unit conversions like yours, you'd end up like the Gimli Glider! ;)

[Aye Ess]

And number of rainforests wiped out per day is measured in sporting fields,dependent on the state we live in...''that's the equivalent of 178 MCGs (WACA,SCG,Gabbas)''

[Warbo]

Careful with your zeros. Warragamba dam capacity: 2027000 ML (megalitres). Number of teaspoons in a litre: 203 , thus 203 000 in a megalitre
Total number of teaspoons: 411 481 000 000 , or 411 billion.

Actually, there are 1,000,000 litres in a megalitre - not 1,000, so there are 411,481,000,000,000 (or 411 thousand billion) teaspoons.:8

[Bullethead]

I wanna see golfballs the size of hailstones! :8

Perth has the craziest weather in the country IMNSHO.

Regards,
BH.

[PyroTek]

(or 411 thousand billion)
I call that 411 Trillion :ok:

[jportzer]

Actually, there are 1,000,000 litres in a megalitre...Doh! Thanks...

[blueloo]

hey i just kept adding zeros till it looked right!!!

[Chadzat]

roxy- mid level trough

[Towering Q]

At least the media didn't report it as a 'mini-cyclone' or 'mini-tornado' this time.:yuk:

Interesting that this discussion is taking place on World Meteorological Day.

(That's what it says on my Weather Calender).:8

[Capn Bloggs]

This was the second line of cells that passed through after the big one went over the city:

Just before we decided not to takeoff... :eek:

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w334/capnbloggs/still1.jpg

Just after we decided not to takeoff... :)

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w334/capnbloggs/still2.jpg

The QNH changed by 5mb in the space of 45 minutes.

[ozineurope]

You going up Taxy way Bravo for a 21 departure? BROOK SID or north bound?

Heard from the kids that my place in Perth was untouched - thank goodness. I could imagine trying to do the insurance business from here!

[Capn Bloggs]

The plan was east then north (AMANA). That didn't eventuate! :ouch:

[Capn Bloggs]

I don't want to give too much away otherwise I might OUT myself. :E

Let's just say it's an ex- Mad Dog 95! :}

[bellsux]

That must have been you parked up on Bravo.. did you see the lightning strike and the resulting fire on Horrie Miller?

[Capn Bloggs]

Bellsux, no, I'm in seat 0A, not 0F! ;)

The fire might have been from the overworked ACD machine - I think the ATIS changed about 20 times in 45 minutes, at one stage saying "runway to be advised" (I assume due to the wind doing 360s at 50 kts).

[Chadzat]

was the airport actually closed at the peak of the storm?

[Capn Bloggs]

Bloggs if you're on YBRM run tomorrow use as much discretion not to go anywhere as you want.
I'm taking a month off on stress leave! :D

I didn't hear an actual closure, but Thai was told that a clearance wasn't available because nobody knew what runway they would be using due to the wind swings (and those wusses in MEL couldn't see anybody - how about Dick's procedural separation you guys?! :p)

Sitting watching the storm go past was a good lesson in radar use. For a fleeting second we thought the worst had past, then we got a windshear warning from the system (the audio does occur with the park brake on:confused:):

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w334/capnbloggs/still3.jpg

The returns outside 5nm had been completely attenuated out because the rain was so heavy. A few minutes after this, the radar screen returned to lots of "normal" red.

Here's a link to the weather obs at the time:

YPPH Wx (http://www.wunderground.com/history/station/94610/2010/3/22/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA&MR=1)

[Johnny_56]

has there been any damage at Jandakot?

I'm away at the moment but looking at the photos on the net i'd be suprised if there is anything left to fly there...

[freshy1234]

In Freo we had two periods of rain and occasionally hail (couple of mm in diameter). The cells appeared to be moving south down the coast on the BoM radar and most of the damage was in the northern suburbs, south of the river seems to have gotten off alright :D (apart from flooding my garage :sad:, a combination of blocked drains and laziness).

[neville_nobody]

SPECI YPPH 220912Z 34022G32KT 1500 +TSRA FEW003 SCT018 BKN048CB 20/20 Q1015 RMK HOLY COW INTER 0920/1212 VRB25G55KT 2000 TSGR BKN020 FEW050CB

Good to see someone with a sense of humour during a tough day in the office.

[Captain Nomad]

Love it! :ok:

[Reverseflowkeroburna]

By eocvictim, Anyone on here one of the intrepid who flew through it?

Fair go eoc, I departed Perth mid-afternoon, and if ever I've seen a sky that was cause for the introduction of a skull & crossbones symbol into the BOM abbreviations, then that was it up to the north.

Chadzat, great pics, is that High 5 or the wiggles you've got for neighbours?

[Aerlik]

Once again The Worst Australian stole the show with the picture in yesterday's edition with a woman holding "golf ball-sized" hail. Errrr, unless she's Aaron Sandilands mother, they're FCUKIN marble-sized hailstones.

And tonight C7 reported on the ice storm. You'd think with the amount of ****e that it shows from America it would know the difference between an electric storm and an ice storm. Monday's was NOT an ice storm.

[Chadzat]

Chadzat, great pics, is that High 5 or the wiggles you've got for neighbours?

Took me a while to work out what you were on about there! I have never noticed those 'multi-coloured' houses before. They needed something to stand out with all the ceramic roof tiles!

Back to the weather- I remember thinking at the height of the storm that if ever as pilots we need to be reminded of why we shouldn't go near big CB's then you need to witness an event like this from the ground! Complacency is hard to overcome sometimes, and big kudos to the guys who were inbound to Perth that afternoon and made the decision (rightly) to divert elsewhere- to some quite out of the way places in many cases. :ok:

[Pontius]

In light of my dog's behaviour during the deluge, I'm not going to avail myself of the met man in future but see what my canine weather guesser is up to instead. This time round she hid under her bed, which I think can be taken as a clue to not commit aviation.

She's either very astute or a bigger wuss than I already thought :hmm:

PS: I was out of country but (a)had the dog's behaviour reported by my wife and (b)had her describe the hail relative to gold ball size :rolleyes:

[MyNameIsIs]

Perth even got snow.......

at least according to the link that Capn Bloggs posted earlier- look at the 6pm info.

[Capn Bloggs]

Highest recorded wind gust 245km/h
That'd have your kitesurfer moving...:ooh:

[Towering Q]

Capn Bloggs, Re: your pic on #25...the TCAS indicates an aircraft climbing through 2000ft...was this guy in the pooh or was there an escape route out to the south east?

[Capn Bloggs]

Capn Bloggs, Re: your pic on #25...the TCAS indicates an aircraft climbing through 2000ft...was this guy in the pooh or was there an escape route out to the south east?
It was clear out to the SE. They took off just before we were going to.:cool:

[Nautilus Blue]

(and those wusses in MEL couldn't see anybody - how about Dick's procedural separation you guys?! :p)

Easy CB. You have GPSRNAV so your a/c is 14nm wide and 20nm long. If say you divert 30nm off track, it's now 44nm wide and 10 minutes long. Interntional a/c coming the other way doing the same is 58nm wide and 10 minutes long. End result, you stay low, inbound stays high, everybody complains :p.

Serious if stupid question, is the red and black striped arc on your last pic the windshear warning?

[Capn Bloggs]

NB,
Serious if stupid question, is the red and black striped arc on your last pic the windshear warning?
That's it. :ok: Accompanied by a terse yank man blurting out a windshear warning in various tones, depending on how excited he is/close it is.

[Skystar320]

Once again The Worst Australian stole the show with the picture in yesterday's edition with a woman holding "golf ball-sized" hail. Errrr, unless she's Aaron Sandilands mother, they're FCUKIN marble-sized hailstones.


I had a couple of pictures in there - all were not bad, but I agree on your comment though.

Check out Perth Now | Breaking News from Perth and Western Australia | PerthNow (http://www.perthnow.com.au) they still have alot of pictures of the storm, several of mine.

[Nautilus Blue]

"Hailstones the size of cliches"

[Capn Bloggs]

To all you eastern disbelievers, here are the hail stones:

http://i521.photobucket.com/albums/w334/capnbloggs/hail.gif

:}