Originally posted by Steveo:
Was speaking to my Geography teacher today, and she vividly remembers the August 5-6 1986 rain event in Sydney... ..... I said that I can't express how much I would've loved to experience such a phenomenonal event... her answer was, "You'll witness some powerful weather events in your lifetime, especially with Global Warming."

Steve

Originally posted by Keith:

Quote:

Originally posted by Steveo:
[b] Was speaking to my Geography teacher today, and she vividly remembers the August 5-6 1986 rain event in Sydney... ..... I said that I can't express how much I would've loved to experience such a phenomenonal event... her answer was, "You'll witness some powerful weather events in your lifetime, especially with Global Warming."

Steve

I hope I will, too. I would love to see this event repeated. If, as is thought in some circles, we are about to come into another cycle of wet years, then rain events such as we had in the 1950s-1970s should be even more spectacular. Bring on June 1950 Version 2. [/b]

Originally posted by The 1st Ben:
My wife claims it snowed once at her school in Pymble. I assumed maybe she was confused and experienced soft hail. But based on what others are saying, it may well have been snow!

Torrential rain floods Sydney April 10th 1998

Torrential rain caused further flash flooding in Sydney this morning and afternoon as up to 200mm of rain fell in some suburbs in just a few hours. A boy was drowned after being swept into a creek at North Rocks late afternoon. Major roads in the city's inner west, in the Banksia and Mascot areas in the south, and around Chatswood and Dee Why in the north were closed by 30 to 60cm of water as drains, clogged by a buildup of rubbish after an extended dry spell, failed to cope with the rain. Cars were floating in some streets, and many were stranded by the rising waters. Public transport was disrupted, with flooding trapping 100 passengers in a train in a tunnel on the Eastern Suburbs line, and water across tracks elsewhere causing delays and cancellations. The police station at Newtown, the St Vincents Hospitals in Darlinghurst and a Castle Hill physiotherapy clinic were flooded, and a roof of the old Grace Brothers building at Broadway collapsed, flooding several shops, during the storms. Houses were flooded in Banksia, Rockdale, Waverley, Randwick, Woollahra, Malabar, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Annandale, Lilyfield, Pyrmont, Collaroy and North Sydney. 180 people were trapped overnight by floodwaters at Narrabeen as Narrabeen Lagoon rose. 5,000 homes across Sydney lost power. The Fire Brigade reported that calls for assistance were being received at the high rate of 150 per hour, while 600 State Emergency Services personnel responded to over 1,300 calls between last night and tonight. The NRMA received between 300 and 450 calls per hour during the day.

The storms developed in moist, unstable air to the east of a small but strong area of convergence in the upper air which moved over the region during the morning. At the surface, a broad trough projected from central-eastern Queensland across the NSW Mid-North Coast, where a small low pressure system formed during the morning before drifting east. A number of centres of intense rainfall, accompanied by thunder, moved slowly east across parts of the metropolitan area. The falls in and south of the city occurred between about 7 and 9am, with the city gauge receiving 45mm between 7 and 8.30am. Another cell gave Chatswood 95mm in the hour to 12.45pm. At Frenchs Forest, Don White reports that he received 84mm over 4 hours to 3pm, with a further 122.6mm to 5pm, 108mm of which fell in the 80 minutes from 3.40 to 5pm.

The heaviest 24 hour falls to 9am this morning are made up of rain from the storms yesterday afternoon and this morning. They included 118.0mm at Randwick Racecourse, 75.8 at Mosman, 75.2 at Sydney Airport, 74.4 at Sydney City, 71.2 at Rose Bay and 70.8 at Randwick Bowling Club. An extraordinary 169.9mm was recorded at the Point Perpendicular lighthouse, south of Jervis Bay, during the period, whilst Culburra Beach on the northern side of the Bay registered 130.0mm and Greenwell Point, further north, recorded 68.2mm.

However, the truly remarkable 24 hour totals to 9am Saturday reflect the rain which fell mostly in a band across Sydney's northern suburbs during the afternoon -- Castle Cove 279mm, Belrose 263, Ingleside 250.0, Frenchs Forest 227.8, Cromer 190.4, Palm Beach 185.0, Gordon 166, Sydney City 165, Pymble 163.2, Avalon 154.2, Riverview 141.6, Epping 140.2 and Turramurra 128.6. Riverview Observatory's recording of 141.6 was its highest June 24 hour rainfall on record, the previous highest in 77 years being 120.9. The heaviest unofficial report was 279.5 at Davidson. Point Perpendicular recorded a further 60mm, bringing its two-day total to 230mm.

At Sydney's official city gauge, 239mm fell during the 48 hours to 9am Saturday, most of it between Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon. In the 5 months from November to March this year, Sydney recorded 202.4mm.

Originally posted by Bokkey:
Riverview Observatory's recording of 141.6 was its highest June 24 hour rainfall on record, the previous highest in 77 years being 120.9.

Well, as I intimated on another thread, I was in the thick of it that day. I was working in one of the emergency services on a 7 day night shift. As we commenced work at 11pm the night of the 5th of August, it was already chaotic. I was working in the St George area of Sydney, which encompassed Botany Bay. I remember the rain coming in sheets - sideways - it was awesome. It was a sight to see waves crashing over the road at Dolls Point where normally the bay is smooth enough to ski on.

However, between being in awe of the conditions, there was some hard work to do. Numerous powerlines and trees down, streets flooded, car accidents. I remember it was pretty hairy driving around at that time of night in those conditions. Other than other emergency service vehicles, there was not a single vehicle on the road. It was eerie, as if we were driving through some post-apocalyptic no-go zone. I do remember things started to quieten down come daybreak when we finished at 7am, but it was as if we had been through a wringer!

I know our tropical friends must be thinking - so what? But, it was the closest Sydney has come to experiencing cyclonic-like conditions.