(1) Even though we only received 5mm, storms formed just south of Kingaroy and the airport had 24.6mm. A friend, further south, in the Haly Creek - Ellesmere area had 31mm.
(2) Finally, just before midnight on the 20/2/2009 we had a storm front similar to "the old days", meaning how I remember rain before 1974. It dumped down until around 1.00am. It was so heavy it woke me and I stood and watched. After the initial wind, the drops fell straight down so hard and so intense that the volume going into the tank strainer had no chance of allowing the water through and it poured down the sides of the tank. Luckily both of our tanks are full.
(3) Cyclone HAMISH has been wandering parallel to the QLD coast and has managed to get as far as Fraser Is as a Category 3 after reaching Category 5 earlier in it's path from where it started, near Cooktown.

Our massive rainfall out of this system up till now is shown, .5mm !

The Extended Outlook from BOM says this:

"EXTENDED OUTLOOK
Tropical Cyclone Hamish is expected to slow down and gradually weaken over the
next day or so before moving slowly north-westwards as a decaying low. At the
same time the high over the Bight area will move into the Tasman Sea and
continue to move eastwards reaching the New Zealand area on Saturday. The
remains of Tropical Cyclone Hamish will spread rain and shower activity across
most of the south-east on Thursday. Some moderate to heavy falls will occur with
this rain especially near the low. This rain and shower activity will continue
through Friday as an upper trough moves into the south-east of the state. This
upper trough will pass seawards overnight Friday. As a result only a few showers
will occur about the south-east of the state on Saturday and Sunday and then
mainly near the coast." 

So, hopefully we may still get some rain from the washup

The visible image below was taken at 7.33am 10th March,  Eastern Standard Time, Australia.

Image courtesy of the NPMOC (Yokosuka)
 

(4)
More flooding feared as SE Qld mops up
Friday April 3, 2009 - 08:02 EDT

Emergency crews have responded to more than 200 calls for help after heavy rain caused flash-flooding on the Sunshine Coast in south-east Queensland.

The deluge began early yesterday and quickly swamped the region, with many roads still under water.

Several motorists were rescued from flooded roads, while students at two Sunshine Coast schools were stranded and spent the night in their classrooms.

The heaviest rain fell at the Gold and Sunshine Coasts overnight.

Maroochydore had 127 millimetres to 7am AEST and Coolangatta had 124 millimetres.

Brisbane received almost 66 millimetres.

Noosa State Emergency Service (SES) spokesman Dave Hanchard says conditions are dangerous on the roads.

Mr Hanchard says they were kept busy rescuing stranded motorists.

"The majority were people stuck in cars or they had gone into the water and driven off the road and commonsense would dictate you don't go into floodwaters - the way the water was running in some places was up to 20 knots," he said.

He says a team of firefighters drove into a washout while responding to an emergency.

"We have got two cases of where roads have collapsed - this is how easy it is - the firies know the road they drove into [was] a washout so it can happen to the most experienced people," he said.

Disaster management spokesman Jason Cameron says the flood situation is still being assessed.

"This morning will be about having a look at that - what sort of affect that will have and we'll determine it from there," he said.

"We really need to look and see what the hydrologists have to say about that but certainly it would be a moderate amount of water that we just need to monitor closely."

All state schools on the Sunshine Coast are open.

Education Queensland spokesman Rod McAlpine says the students stranded at Pomona High School overnight will return home when floodwater recedes.

"In Kin Kin, I haven't been able to make contact with the school yet this morning, but as of last thing last night there were still 14 children, three staff and six adults who were planning to spend the night there," he said.

Weather bureau spokesman Gavin Holcombe says there could be more wet weather to come.

"We are still going to see further showers, tending to rain at times along both the Gold and Sunshine Coast for the next 24 to 48 hours that may produce the odd heavy fall in the ranges in the back of those coasts," he said.

"But it will be nothing like what we had, so while the heavier falls are gone, we are still going to see further precipitation around the area.

"We are more than likely see an increase in rain again, probably during Sunday.

"We have got another upper trough system moving into the state during Saturday going into Sunday and that is going to increase the uplift over the south-east part of the state - probably see the rain increase."

While the rain has eased in some areas, Mr Hanchard says emergency services are concerned about swollen catchments and the water likely to flow downstream toward the coast.

"Unfortunately we are not out of the woods yet as far as the SES goes, because now we have got to contend with whatever run-off is going to come down from up in the hinterland, so it is not going to take much," he said.

"If this rain holds off several hours we might stand some chance."

More than 500 homes and businesses in the Sunshine Coast region are without power this morning.

Energex says the worst affected areas are in the hinterland of the Mary Valley and Gympie.

The Sunshine Coast hinterland town of Kin Kin has been hard hit by the flooding.

Access to the town is difficult with logs from a sawmill strewn across the road at one end of town and the bridge at the other end badly damaged.

Cherry Wynne works at the local hotel and says the building was inundated.

"It's a two-storey pub and it was lapping at the top of the first floor right up to the top ceiling there, but the second floor was okay," she said.

"All our bar fridges at the back of the bar, that bar fridge is now up on the bar."

Bruce Costin, who lives at Cedar Pocket near Gympie, says more than 200 millimetres of rain has fallen at his property in the past 24 hours.

"The Cedar Pocket Dam is a very fast-filling dam and she came up very fast with that sort of drop and the Gear's Bridge below the dam was maybe a metre over it," he said.

"All the approaches to that area were closed like the Kin Kin, Gap Road and all that sort of stuff was closed."

Sunshine Coast Mayor Bob Abbot is hoping the worst has passed.

"I don't think we will have too much more problem now there is not any more rain left up there," he said.

"We've had 26 inches in five hours - there is just no more water in the sky - there can't be."

Gold Coast SES volunteers attended around 30 calls for help last night as heavy rain fell across the city.

There were falls ranging from 100 and 181 millimetres from 9am AEST yesterday.

Acting SES Gold Coast controller Chad Tripp says most of the problems were leaking rooves.

"Most of the damage was caused by the amount of water and if your gutters are blocked at all, it backs up and into your property and basically you get a ceiling collapse or small leaks and it causes havoc," he said.

Gold Coast City Council lifeguards will reassess local beach conditions later today.

The city's beaches were closed yesterday as big seas pounded the coast and they will remain closed until at least lunch time today.

Chief lifeguard Warren Young says conditions have eased .

"The swell has dropped as I said, but it's still not inviting - there's still a lot of water moving in close and still a bit unstable," he said.

He says there is debris in the water and lifeguards have also retrieved some shark equipment that came loose in the heavy swells.

"Some has come in in the last couple of days and lifeguards retrieved it for the contractor but we'll keep an eye on that as well, but we've got to be careful with that," he said.

- ABC

© ABC 2009

And what did we get?  3.5mm!

(5)

Radar before I went to bed. As can be seen by the rainfall totals, it was really heavy on the Sunshine Coast. We were in the middle of two systems and getting near nothing. By morning we'd received 17mm.
Thanks to Bureau of Meteorology and Weatherzone.

Below are figures for the areas around the south east, the next morning.

(6)

Dust settles as storm rolls north

Wednesday September 23, 2009 - 20:43 EST

 

 

Dirty haze: Brisbane was shrouded in a cloud of dust. - ABC
 

 

 

Behind a veil: The Brisbane skyline is swathed in dust - ABC
 

 

 

Eerie glow: The Sydney Harbour Bridge is bathed in dust - ABC
 

 

Skies have cleared over Sydney and Brisbane after an intense dust storm swept through the cities, causing traffic chaos and leading to health concerns.

The spectacular blanket of orange and yellow pollution cloaked parts of New South Wales and Queensland and was easily big enough to show up on satellite photos from space.

The dust storm also hampered firefighting efforts in Queensland, where more than 20 blazes raged around Brisbane.

Residents are being told to expect conditions to return to normal overnight and into tomorrow morning as the dust storm continues its push north.

Emergency services have been on high alert, with hundreds of calls from people suffering breathing problems.

"We've had joggers come in, fit young men and women who have just had real trouble breathing and we've had to treat them," said Professor Gordian Fulde of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.

People in Brisbane used scarfs and tissues to protect themselves from the dust, while one hardware store in the city's CBD handed out about 600 face masks in 40 minutes.

The worst dust storm in 70 years threw the plans of commuters and travellers into chaos.

"Our one set of traffic lights in the town are showing amber, amber, amber," one NSW resident said.

School was still on but morning Sydney ferries and flights were delayed and cancelled.

"Six international flights were cancelled. The diverted flights have progressively returned to Sydney and we are getting departure delays for international flights of up to six hours," Sydney airport spokesman Rod Gilmour said.

"In relation to domestic flights, we've had delays of about up to 180 minutes but things are now operating normally at the airport."

There were also big delays for passengers at Brisbane Airport.

"We were held up for an hour in Emerald and now I've just got to run and get a Jetstar flight to Newcastle," one passenger said.

"I have been delayed by five hours in Cairns and have probably missed the last bus home tonight to Toowoomba," another traveller said.

The conditions also forced tens of thousands of construction workers to stop work at dozens of building sites across Sydney.

Brian Parker from the Construction Forestry, Energy and Mining Union says the windy weather created problems.

"With the high winds, it causes a number of problems with the movement of materials [and] cranes operating," he said.

"So with the dust and also the wind, [it] could have contributed to injuries and even fatalities."

Emergency Services and the fire brigade were also kept busy with fallen trees and fire alarms that were triggered by the dust particles.

Chris Eiser from the New South Wales Department of Environment and Climate Change says the pollution readings have been off the charts for much of the day.

"Particles we measured today are the highest we measure since we started monitoring in the 1970s," he said.

"They are certainly far in excess of any levels we measured during bushfires. For example, we're measuring around 15,000 micrograms per cubic metre as a concentration.

"Bushfires would normally get around 500 micrograms per cubic metre and on a normal day that would be anywhere between 10 and 20, so certainly a significant event.

It was an event that began hundreds of kilometres inland. Topsoil from the drought-ravaged west of NSW was stripped from the earth and pushed by huge wind gusts to the east.

The haze smothered south-east Queensland, forcing firefighters to temporarily ground water-bombing helicopters.

With climate change a hot topic this week far beyond Australia's shores, experts say extreme dust storms like this could become more frequent.

Dr John Leys from the NSW's Department of Environment's Dust Watch division says it looks like dust storms such as this will become more prevalent.

"There has been a report from CSIRO that show that this drought is the first of its type, because we've never had droughts which have been so hot," he said.

"Things like this are going to be more prevalent unless we can improve our land management practices so we can maintain more ground cover, so there is less chance of us all blowing away."

- ABC

© ABC 2009

Thanks to ABC and Weatherzone

A similar day occurred 28/10/2003. Here is a link.

(7) Finally, after over 3 weeks of dust, haze, heat and generally dry, disgusting days, the wind direction changed to the south east and brought some moisture in from the coast.
At around 9.30 pm, on Sunday night  4-10-2009  (my 60th birthday - great birthday present!), a blob showed up on radar about 15km south west of Kingaroy.
I watched the radar as the blob evolved into 1 heavy cell moving north east towards Kingaroy. Other cells formed east of Kingaroy and around Gayndah. The heavy cell divided into 2 as it moved towards us and I thought we'd miss out again, but it came over us and rained so heavily that the flow into the tank overshot the gauze filter.
I had to get drenched trying to point the flow downwards.
We lost a lot of water, so I'll have to put a deflector on the spout.

(8) After watching storm clouds build in the southeast and hearing news of hail and heavy downpours, we received 3.5mm in the odd shower. Just a few kilometres southwest of Kingaroy, falls above 70mm were reported. The official BOM site at the airport - only being a few kilometres south, which I can see sitting here - even reported in with 17.2mm. As I write this, storms are occurring at Dalby and the latest report says 20.4mm. It will be interesting to see if we get any decent falls on this side of the Bunya Mts today.

As you can see we received .5mm!!

Below are some pathetic quality pics of the storm that gave over 70mm to the Stuart Valley area just south of Kingaroy.
As I only had my mobile camera with me as the storm approached, it had to do, as I didn't want to miss the pics.
The storm looked really wild as it moved towards the area.