"Hurricane force" winds hit Bass Strait

[pgc hunter]

Yikes, and I thought the weather was crap here

Hurricane strength winds blast Bass Strait

Alex Zadnik, Tuesday July 5, 2011 - 15:03 EST



A deep low pressure system brought wild winds to southeastern Australia on Tuesday, with
Bass Strait experiencing 'hurricane-strength' winds.

The Hogan Island group which lies south of Wilsons Promontory had its highest wind gust
in three years, reaching an incredible 169km/h. Average wind speeds peaked at 128km/h
(69 knots), which is 'hurricane force' on the Beaufort wind scale.

The Beaufort scale was created in 1805 by Sir Frances Beaufort and is used to categorise
wind strengths at sea. This is the basis for our current marine warnings in Australia.
'Strong Wind Warnings' are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology when average wind speeds
exceed 25 knots, 'Gale Warnings' are issued for winds above 33 knots and 'Storm Wind
Warnings' are issued when average winds hit 48 knots. When average wind speeds exceed
64 knots they are considered 'hurricane force', with the sea turned completely white with
foam and spray. These winds are rarely experienced in Australia, outside of severe tropical
cyclone activity.

Winds weren't quite as extreme through the southeastern capitals but still reached gale-
force, with gusts of over 80km/h at Melbourne Airport and 80km/h around Sydney.

www.weatherzone.com.au


Here's the BOM obs http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDV60...01.94949.shtml

imagine that.... over 24 hours of solid 100k+ gusts

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Wooooooossh

[Ric]

Now that's a good clothes drying day.

If you can ever find the washing again.

[Gem (Grant)]

Shouldn't we be speaking of "cyclone" strength winds??? Hurricanes are American I believe...

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by pgc hunter

imagine that.... over 24 hours of solid 100k+ gusts

Been there, done that. On several occasions.

[pgc hunter]

Carl, yeah, but 30+ hours of gusts over 100km/h., with 18 hours of it largely above 120km/h... I don't think so. Cyclones will pass in a few hours, regardless of size/wind strength. This was a major prolonged event. Had it hit a major city, all bloody hell would've broke loose. Hogan Island is less than 200km SE of Melbourne btw.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by pgc hunter

Carl, yeah, but 30+ hours of gusts over 100km/h., with 18 hours of it largely above 120km/h... I don't think so. Cyclones will pass in a few hours, regardless of size/wind strength. This was a major prolonged event. Had it hit a major city, all bloody hell would've broke loose. Hogan Island is less than 200km SE of Melbourne btw.

Not 30 hours. But it's pretty obvious you've never been in a large cyclone. Yasi didn't pass in a few hours....more like 14 hours or so. And that was only the destructive core. But we had gale force winds for a lot longer. Not only that, but the peak winds were stronger here, and a lot stronger only a little further north.

You mightn't realise this, but for every 1mph over 100mph in wind speed, the pressure exerted by that wind doubles. 169km/hr winds are strong, but winds of 180km/hr (which we got here) are 12 times as strong. Our house was vibrating in the gusts of wind and the power lines that remained up, when you could hear them, were "singing"...making a humming sound.

However, Hogan Island did take a battering.