that was one hell of a cyclone. the leftovers of it have been bringing fairly substantial rainfall numbers to the goldfields over the last two days.
wal.

It sure was.

Old Lua soaks southern WA

Tropical Cyclone Lua had weakened below cyclone strength before it had reached the WA Goldfields but it still managed to soak the region and the area to the south with its heaviest rain in years.

Much of the Goldfields and Southeast Coastal gained 30-to-80mm of steady rain, one-to-two times the monthly average. This rain now takes the region above average for the year so far after a fairly dry start.

Kalgoorlie and Norseman both received about 60mm in the 24 hours to 9am today, their heaviest rain in 12 years.

Further south, Salmon Gums picked up 52mm, a five-year high and Esperance 42mm, a three-year high.

One of the wettest places in the last 24 hours was Edjudina, just northeast of Kalgoorlie, which gained 75mm, its heaviest rain in 11 years.

Southern WA normally doesn't do so well from tropical cyclones, regarding rainfall. The main reason it did better than usual this time was largely due to Lua making landfall as a severe category four system. This allowed it to maintain its cyclone status more than 500km from the ocean, its energy source.

It's the closest a cyclone has got to the Goldfields since February 2000, when Cyclone Steve made it all the way from Cairns to Broome to the Great Australian Bight.

The Goldfields and inland parts of the Southeast Coastal are now drying out as the remnants of Lua head to the Bight. For the rest of this week only light showers and drizzle will affect coastal areas, whilst the inland stays dry despite brisk southerly winds.

Meanwhile, the west coast, including Perth can expect clear skies to continue with dry and gusty southeasterly winds.

Perth's next best chance of rain is Sunday night or Monday, a month since it last had some. A low pressure trough will develop off the west coast and head inland, taking rain with it. This will end Perth's longest dry spell since February-to-April last year, when no rain was recorded in the city's gauge in 64 days.

- Weatherzone

they are certainly good numbers for this district for this time of the year popeye. i do remember cyclone steve, i was also here when cyclone bobby made it all the way down here in 1994(i think it was). bobby dumped a lot of rain down here. it washed away the road and railway line to leonora as well as the trans australian railway line at goddards creek east of zanthus.
wal.

Think I'll keep my L plates on for a while yet! Although have been learning a lot over time.
Bom and the Occ did an awesome job in predicting the crossing point of this system.

Hey Dave. I drove past them purposely to have a look at them in the big gusts and they were doing fine. Give them another 5 years growth though and they will be getting pretty big. On closer inspection around Broome over the last 24 hrs, there has been some reasonable tree damage around the place. A couple of the towns biggest trees opposite the boulevard shoppo have been pushed over. Seaweed everywhere on the beaches starting to pile up at the high tide line. Other than that though towns back to normal.

The OCC boys stopped over for a few hours last night before hitting the road back to Darwin and there was a spark in the eye for over QLD way for something developing. No doubt they will fill us all in when they get back to earth after their date with Lua.

Yeah what a surprise today that Bunnings had outdoor brooms and blowers on 'special'. (not sure how special the prices were!).

So far we have had Heidi, (Hedland), Lua, (Pardoo), next one in early April, (Bidgy?), or one forming off Darwin and heading round the top of the Kimberley .... Still time I guess - maybe as the Monsoon heads back up north......

Hey Popeye, when i planted those Mahogony's I planted a little bit deeper than normal. Great to hear they are holding up ok, though if something ever hits hard , i fear there will be a lot of damage to those trees...i planted quite a few hundred of them.

Have been through a few near misses in Broome, a couple in the van park, and in houses around town. Van got blown to peices in Rosita...but we pop riveted it back together!!

Yep nothing wrong with mahogany's if planted correctly, well done Dave. Have got one in my backyard and i planted it VERY deep. In November i had the top of it pruned out and the arborist said at the time that if a cyclone smashes Darwin then the last thing that topples will be that Mahogany... trunk on it is massive, i love it. Glad to hear that Broome escaped major damage guys, such a pretty town and its pretty disheartening when it gets smashed to pieces!!

Lua past and gone, does anybody know where to find some data from the OCC boys in Pardoo. It will be nice to see a bit more info and maybe some footage.

try their site on FB ozchasers

Some upgrade from the OCC in this Thread http://forum.weatherzone.com.au/ubbthrea...ere#Post1094320

Guys A short 1-2 minute trailer on cyclone LUA will be up sometime late this weekend. We are excited to share with everyone our footage The 1-2 minute trailer will be on youtube and free of course, however when we release the documentry in 2 months time there will obviously be a price involved, as something has to pay back the money we spent getting to chase Lua.

Good to see the BoM have downgraded Lua’s intensity in the recently released cyclone report which now supports my claim:


Extreme values during cyclone event (estimated)
Maximum Category: 4
Maximum sustained wind speed: 165 km/h
Maximum wind gust: 230 km/h
Lowest central pressure: 930 hPa

Yep had a chat with Andrew Burton from BoM WA TCWC and seemed to agree on the 220 - 230 kph max gusts.

Here's our doco trailer

ooooooooooooooo what a teaser fantastic boys

nice work boys! great editing work to trav.