Severe Weather SEQ

[jjjnettie]

This is just madness.
Our forecast for tomorrow....

Damaging winds, with gusts of around 110km/h are expected over the Wide Bay and Burnett, northern stretches of the Sunshine Coast and northern parts of the Darling Downs and Granite Belt district. Wind gusts in excess of 125km/h may occur and this could cause significant damage or destruction to homes and property in localised areas.
These conditions are expected to contract southwards into the Southeast Coast district and also extend west to the Great Dividing Range during Sunday. In this area, destructive wind gusts in excess of 125 km/h and tornadoes could cause significant damage or destruction to homes and property in localised areas.
Heavy rainfall which may lead to flash flooding is expected over the Wide Bay and Burnett district and Southeast Coast district, extending west to include the Great Dividing Range and the Granite Belt. Six hour rainfall accumulations in excess of 100mm are likely. This could lead to rapid river and stream rises. Widespread 24 hour rainfall accumulations in excess of 250mm are likely.

My son and I have worked out safety plan just in case the sirens do go off. The astro shed, which is already flooding has been secured as much as possible with the dob raised up off the ground and tarps are covering all gear.
I'm concerned about the neighbours though, who's yard is strewn with sheet metal and other misc junk. :(
To everyone here on the forum who is in the path of this storm, please take care. The police have advised NOT to take to the road unnecessarily and I read somewhere that all airports will be closed.

There is no relationship between this weather event and my recent scope purchase. :sadeyes:

[h0ughy]

JJJ i thought you were a little higher on the hill than this? not good news.

[Tandum]

I got the dome bolted down with G clamps for the first time ever.
And rent a crowd is coming over tomorrow to get on the piss :)

[jjjnettie]

Robin, when I first moved into the new house, directly opposite Kilcoy Creek, the neighbours and I agreed that the first flood party would be on my front veranda as their house is low set. LOL

[Astro_Bot]

Yeah, those warnings are a tad sobering, especially when watching news coverage of today's tornados around Wide Bay.

Oh well, on the upside, I'm already 2/5ths of the way through a Star Wars marathon ...

Edit: Hey Jeanette, you haven't updated your signature yet.

[AstroJunk]

Many months of bone dry weather have broken the basal seals of my obsevatory - I went in earlier to tie the dome to the pier (done, tick) and found a power board floating in a small lake! Switched the mains off, lifted the circuits, closed the doors and fingers crossed!!!

Still, its's only stuff - stay safe everyone.

[pmrid]

Are these two things connected? :lol::lol:
Peter

[xstream]

And here's Anna and I leaving sunny Vic. again today to head back to CQ.
We must have rocks in our heads! :lol::lol:

[LewisM]

Good lord it's been a shocking night here. Woke this morning to crap everywhere, and it's still blowing a gale. Rain died off for now.

Can't be my Takahashi purchase - it hasn't arrived yet. ;)

[leon]

I feel for you guys, and have seen it on the news, I don't wish for a Cyclone but a bit of water up here in Darwin would be good.
Seems that the two Tropical lows on either side of the country have sucked every bit of moisture from the top end.
It is hot, humid and very dry up here, no wet season to speak of.

Leon

[LewisM]

Now just waiting for the snakes to come out. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[multiweb]

Teriible news. Stay safe.

[hotspur]

Not looking good,we needed the rain,but it gone from one extreme to the other.Glad I came home from Brisbane yesterday,its been bucketing down all morning from 2 am,very heavy.

Went out to a 5000 acre property late yesterday afternoon to pick up three remote cameras,but the 4WD could not get through on the tracks,so slippy
,the chap has a 'quad bike' he was going to get them this morning,but I think that might be off the cards-going to be some interesting footage,one was overlooking a damn nearly empty-so hope to get some time line shots of it filling up.Here is a pic before the rains-might be ducks instead of eagle on next ones.

[brian nordstrom]

:shrug: I hear you Leon , its been a different kind of wet this year , lots of clouds and no rain ? strange .
Brian.

[LewisM]

The squalls are getting pretty stiff here. Rain was near horizontal a minute ago.

[knightrider]

That weather stated up in the cape as cyclone oswald briefly rhen fizzled and came through to fnq and travelled down the coast to you guys.

It rained for a week and a half straight non stop in north Queensland. Started just when my new scope arrived....I think it was my fault :/

[cybereye]

Anybody in SEQ got a dog called Toto? If so you could be in for an interesting day!!

Stay safe and dry,
Mario

[Baddad]

I have it fully worked out. The reason we are experiencing this storm is:
Some one from IIS has won lotto and has bought up big. Not just for themselves but for all their mates as well. So much astro toys is what its about.
jjj's purchase is insufficient to cause this much rain and wind. So jjj can be forgiven. Same with the scope that has not arrived. LewisM.

Whoever won the lotto will be found out soon enough. They will get their just deserts.

Seriously, I wish everyone an uneventful storm. Ride it out safely.

Hey, jjj, can you summon up the Clewwds disappear? It may help.

Cheers:)

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Qeenslanders!
Honestly.
Gripe, gripe,gripe. ;)
250mm of rain?
That's just rubbing our noses in it!
We've had the 100kph + winds, but not a drop or rain since the middle of December. :(

[CJ]

Guilty too. My 8" GSO Dob arrived 11 days ago. Sorry!

[Baddad]

Hi Chris,:)

Since you confessed you are forgiven. However that still is not enough in new toys for this messy weather. So you are in the clear, Chris.:)

"fess up, Who won lotto? We will call you lots of nasty names. You have it coming.:)

Just following the main part of the system. It seems to be edging west towards Kilcoy. Stay safe jjj. Hope it dissipates or goes East and outa' here.

Cheers

[jjjnettie]

Someone posted this photo on FB.
They're heading for high ground.

[pmrid]

Could it be a certain member (who shall remain unnamed) who just bought a bleedin' Ceravolo 300? That would do it, surely.

Peter

[hotspur]

The powers that be are keeping the Somerset dam gates shut,to hold the water back so they can release as much water out of Wievinhoe to protect Brisbane,and have decided to let Kilcoy flood,in order to protect Brisbane-so better get a boat jjj.

I did win lotto last week-but only $38.45c-I did not buy the ticket,I helped a wicca chick move some furniture,so she bought me a ticket at the mall while we had coffee-when my coffee arrived-she noticed bubbles in it-which ,apparently meant I was coming into money(superstitious nonses,but she was a Fiona Horne look a like-so I'll put up with it)-so figured I'd better keep the lotto ticket-guess she was right.But not even enough to buy a new eye piece-so not my lotto winning causing rain:lol:

[RobF]

Holy mega-cow, that would do it! What were you thinking Peter! :eyepop:
And here I was feeling guilty the bad weather started as soon as my newly purchased (2nd hand) Tak FSQ arrived on the doorstep :scared3:

I'm taking the size of the weather response as a good omen for future imaging though ;)

[jjjnettie]

geezus....honestly, you guys just can't help yourselves can you. LOLOL
And yes, after this downfall, I'm expecting great things from our new scopes. :)

[LewisM]

Just saw a brown snake go past - about 10 ft up in the air.... nah, just joking, but I made the mistake of taking the trash out... I couldn't get the front door shut fast enough!!! Royally biigered up the insides with that wind!!!

There's about 6" of standing water around us. Thankfully whoever designed our place was a genius and installed a LOT of drainage ideas etc, so it runs off/soaks FAST, but now the trees are falling over in the sodden sand across the road.

[AstroJunk]

Hurrah! I was beginning to think it was my EQ8. I don't feel so bad now...

[DavidTrap]

We've just had an plasterboard eave in front of our garage come falling down, thoroughly waterlogged. Looks like I'll be outside in the rain this arvo with some plastic to prevent further water ingress into the ceiling space. It will be an insurance job, but I think I'll leave the emergency repair guys to deal with the more serious damage this afternoon.

Australia Day weekend isn't a great time for us - last year the air conditioner overflowed into the ceiling cavity, giving us an indoor water feature. We initially thought it was a leaking roof, but turned out to be a dodgey AC install.

I'll admit to collimating one of my scopes last night - had to try out the takahashi collimating scope I bought last year. This afternoon, I was planning on installing a thermistor on the primary mirror to see if I can work out why the mirror dews up so quickly, but that will have to wait.

DT

[RobF]

House damage not good David. Hope that's as bad as it gets for you.
Gum tree branch blocking the driveway the worst we've had to contend with so far but the gusts seem to be getting stronger.

[asimov]

Reckon these 3 pics about sums up what's going on here in Bundaberg East.

What a mess & the water continues to rise..Apparently peaking at 8.2M later this arvo.

[pmrid]

NOT ME!! Crikey, I'm innocent. Although I would dearly love to have a play with a Ceravolo, I just don't have the bread for that sort of gear any more. As an officially retired old F#$t, I am now on spending lconstraints - well sort of anyway!

Peter

[DavidTrap]

Pretty minor in all reality. Lots of debris on the roads during my trip to Bunnings. Amazed to see people buying paint at Bunnings - how do they expect it will dry in 100% humidity! Felt sorry for the sausage sizzle crew at Bunnings. I understand the waiting list for that as a fundraiser is >12 months. They probably thought they'd scored with a public holiday weekend, but no...

DT

[jjjnettie]

I just spent 10 minutes on the front veranda and watched the creek rise even more. Where I stood to take a short video in the picnic shelter an hour ago is now part of the torrent. :(

[peter_4059]

Looks like the rain is about to clear Kilcoy on the weather radar JJJ.

[jjjnettie]

:) I've been watching the radar. Yaaaaahoooo
It will take at least 8hrs for the last of the water from upstream to get here. So there will be a few folk not going to work tomorrow.

[hotspur]

That's awful news David,hope family is safe,and your house gets no further damage.Its really getting quite wet around the place at present.Last weather news I saw last night said the rain will head to NSW,and even Southern NSW,where they need it.

Finally got out to observatory,only some damp carpet near the door,although its made me think-all this gear that gets used 4 or 5 times a year,and all the insurance etc,might seriously sell the lot and just get some macro gear-at least it might get used,and easier to house.

[peter_4059]

Should stop raining right about...................now :lol:

[Kunama]

Now I remember why I moved away from Mooloolaba !

Hope you guys and girls are safe and well in wet wet wet Qld.


Psst ........... anybody wanna buy a townhouse in Buderim ............ on top of the hill, high and dry.

[LewisM]

Rain stopped. Wind stopped.

[LewisM]

I spoke too soon. We must have been in the eye of it :) :) :)

It's back, with enough vengeance. GRRRR.

[steve000]

Madness? THIS IS QUEENSLANDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

im sorry i couldn't help my self, reference to the movie 300 if u never seen it

[steve000]

I too went to bunnings, heaps and heaps of people there. quite odd if you ask me but I was also there, perhaps im odd too....

[cybereye]

Still blowing a gale here in Brisbane at three. Emptied the rain gauge just after lunch and we've since had 50mm. That makes 177mm since the rain began.

Mario

[jjjnettie]

The rain stopped but talking to the council earlier, the water is still rising 200mm an hour.
I went for a rubber neck just before and when I came back they had a road closed sign on my street. I had water across my drive way and it's rising pretty fast. Another hour or less and I'll be totally flooded in.
:) Set up the camera on the verandah and am taking shots every 15 seconds of the water rising. :)

[Ric]

That's a bit worrying JJJ

Hope that water starts dropping soon.

[steve000]

Sing out if things go pear shaped, there is enough of us here im sure we can amass a small navy to your door to rescue you :)

Keep dry, I look foward to a timelapse video

[Baddad]

A good friend of mine has a boat. He owes me some favours.
I also have a boat licence. So just call if you need us.

Cheers

[jjjnettie]

LOL I'm in a high set house, I'm sure I'll be quite fine. Thanks anyway. :)

[AstroJunk]

That'll serve them. I guess that they could convert it into rock star style dual swimming pool and garage!

[RickS]

Sorry to hear about the damage to the house, David. Hope it is sorted quickly. We've had a leak from a deck that we noticed a while back. Fortunately, it's outside the house and the builder came and cut a hole a week ago so most of the water is dripping out through that instead of pooling in the roof. At least we know where the water is coming from now...

I hope everybody else out there is safe and dry too!

BTW, there is no truth to the rumour that a Ceravolo is responsible for the weather in SE Qld. Not yet, at least ;)

Cheers,
Rick.

[DavidTrap]

Thanks Rick,

All pretty minor here. My brother is without power tonight - will drop my generator over to him in the morning (if I can get down Moggill Rd). Hope his in-laws don't get flooded again like they did in 2011.

DT

[erick]

8.25m at 10pm and still rising. That means lots of houses and businesses are underwater now. I lived through a couple of floods when I lived there (40+ years ago!) - nothing like this.

[asimov]

Yes Eric, the whole town is basically under. I've seen photo's of the IGA in North...It's simply no longer there to be seen. Amazing.

[cybereye]

The story in the southern suburbs of Brisbane...

Well it's finally stopped raining and the wind has died down. The rain I can deal with but the wind is something else!

I am amazed that two trees in particular are still standing. The gusts this morning are something that I will never forget - I guess this is what I get for living on a ridge!

Total rainfall for my backyard came to 286mm and that does not take into account the near horizontal rain.

Cheers,
Mario

[RobF]

Yes, I don't think I've even seen wind like it either Mario. Was convinced the neighbours gum tree was going to take out our power and internet.

We have a steel frame house and a few times last night I'm sure I could feel it shudder a couple of times in the gusts. I see Archerfield (nearest airport) had 93km/hr gusts earlier this morning and at that fits with 40 odd knot gusts I would have estimated here, so I hope I never get to live through a real cyclone!

Lots of activity in the street today cleaning up branches and leaves.

[GrahamL]

Hope everyones ok,when I saw this come ashore around gladstone I thought it would weaken quickly as it moved south , well its been raining cats and dogs for a day and a half,and the wind is gusting from nothing to cyclonic every few seconds, the greenhouse I manage was pretty well shredded at 8.00am and is probably finished now, I noticed the old windmill they stuck outside the local shopping centre 30 years ago was a crumpled mess on the footpath at lunch time.

Good luck to all those in the south and stay safe.

[naskies]

We're safe here in the southside... stuck without power though. I never thought that I'd be wearing in my new generator by keeping the fridges and TV running after a storm, instead of recharging batteries for astrophotography :(

[Baddad]

We are in the outer Northern suburbs of Brisbane. There are many areas with no power.
We are fortunate. Have power and a generator.
We are very popular. Many of our friends wish to borrow the generator.
First come first served. Its gone. These people have tried to purchase a generator. All stock sold already by the local retailers.

We were running only one fridge. Now we are storing friends' food for them in our spare fridge and large separate freezer.

Had a large tree branch come down on our rental house. No damage to the roof. Already cleared up.:)

We are effectively unscathed from the storm. Yet so many around us have damage and/or no power.:sadeyes: We have a lot of branches to clear up, but no real damage.

I bet its because I have not made any astro toy purchases of late.:lol: SWMBO's greenhouse, come orchid house is unscathed. Not even one orchid knocked over. When I built that orchid house, comments were that it is over-engineered. I say it is built to last and to take on Mother Nature.;):)

Cheers

[AstroJunk]

I guess that about 5 litres of rainwater in the hallway on tiles doesn't count as a natural distaster. Mrs had a snapped shrub that caused her mild displeasure.

Still - more damage than in 2011 for us!

[LewisM]

Our only damage was my left knee - slipped over on the tiles in the hallway and came crashing down on it. 10 minutes with an icepack and after a lot of constrained euphemism swearing (so the 4 year old doesn't copy) and I was up and at it again.

[peter_4059]

Came out pretty unscathed here in inner north west. Pool looked like a frog pond this morning however a dose of chlorine has got it looking blue again. Just added the dropout and it should be all good again tomorrow afternoon. Got a bit of water blowing into the garage however I hung a tarp on the weather side of the house during the storm and that mitigated the ingress. Took a drive around this morning - some places nearby not so lucky. Now just watching Ennogera dam/creek levels.

[alan meehan]

Gee you guys up there sure know how to upset the weather gods ,hope everyone is ok been watching reports all day and it looks terrible just starting to get the winds down in the hunter been raining now for two days
some miner flooding but the wind is very strong ,stay safe
AL

[Dennis]

In SE Brisbane we have been without power since 6:30pm Sunday night and it looks like it may not return until Tue/wed. Apart from 2 trees down, mercifully missing our house and our neighbours, all is well. Fortunately we have a gas cooker so there has been no need to break out the camping stove.

Waking up, we could still make tea and have breakfast so life remains good. Our hearts go out to those who have been flooded and sustained damage, we hope you can overcome the adversity and rebuild your lives.

Cheers

Dennis

[danielsun]

That should make for a cool timelapse.:thumbsup:
Crazy times, you guys are battling floods up there and we are on fire down here.
Hope you all stay safe and dry.

Daniel.

[LewisM]

Really weird - we haven't even had a power flicker, yet my sister who lives about 5 km away is without power until Wednesday. She had 2 casualties - her daughter's goldfish. Why they didn't bring them around here is beyond me.

She had snake issues before, now she has REAL snake issues! At Christmas, we all watched a 3 metre carpet snake move along her terraced fenceline... now apparently she's had 4 more, and called the snake catcher twice :)

[DavidTrap]

Watch this space AL, definitely heading your way... Hope it's lost some of the moisture before it gets to you.

DT

[allan gould]

Quick Houghy, before the storm hits you..... Call TNT and get all your equipment up to my place for safe keeping. Use a big truck please!

[h0ughy]

how do I pack it? too late very windy now with a few squalls. only had a piddling 140mm so far this weekend.

[AstroJunk]

Just heard from work - the police are enforcing an exclusion zone around Eagle and Creek st due to the high tide and fallen debris (the windows tend to pop out of the towers!), so there is no access to the big office blocks (111, Riparian, waterfont etc) for the next few days.

So it's work from home for me - Tragically I can VPN in, so no difference other than saving two hours of commuting. Shame, I was going to take lunch up to the 33rd floor and watch the drama unfold...

[jjjnettie]

My kids are happy, first day back at school has been cancelled. :)
I'm sorry to hear about the damage some of you have sustained.
But you know, I'd rather deal with rain and floods than the bush fires.
The east coast of Australia will be now safe from that risk.

[h0ughy]

didyou end up doing a time lapse JJJ

[jjjnettie]

I took the photos, but they weren't as interesting as I'd hoped they'd be. The water didn't continue to rise. I did take more photos of the water receding today. I'll throw them together in Startrails and see what they look like. :)

[jjjnettie]

A short video comprising of 3 time lapses, taken over 2 days during the Australia Day Weekend Floods 2013. Shot in Kilcoy Queensland.
Imaged from my front veranda looking over the park to Kilcoy Creek.
The first timelapse was taken while it was raining, the waters are rising. The bridge into Kilcoy is under water. The townsfolk as well as those stranded in town are circling the towns like gold fish in a bowl.
The second time lapse, the rain has stopped but the waters are still rising, it's crossed the road and my driveway was awash with debris. . Locals and those stranded in town are checking out how high the flood waters are.
The 3rd section was photographed the next day, on Monday 29th, the waters are receding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ3gzFUyQtc&feature=youtu.be

[steve000]

Updates??? How did everyone go in brissy, how is everyone looking downsouth?

[whzzz28]

Brisbane is now clear. Beatifully clear.
I have never seen the sky so blue and so... clear

Makes you realise how much smog is in the air normally.

Flood waters are receeding but power is still out to a lot of areas. Trains are mostly offline as well.
This clear weather though will help dry things out and let workers get on with it.

[Tandum]

Pumped 3" of water out of the pool 3 nights in a row so it was wet. Got a large chunk of the neighbours palm tree in the front yard so it was windy.

But on the Sunday we drank margaritas out of large glasses, stood outside cooking on the BBQ and mostly just watched it roll past. Lots of trees and fences down the next day, which were fixed the day after. We're at 87meters, it would have to be Armageddon before we get flooded. We just get lightning strikes :eyepop:

[alan meehan]

Well we had the overnight blow very windy ,i have a leak in the roof of a new extension on back room caused by a plumber putting his foot through the roof flashing some tree mess around the house but the storm stopped as ouick as it started 160mm of rain ,but now have cloud cover that doesnt
want to move ,usual newcastle weather and tons of mozzies
AL