15 November 2006

Today's Storm



Wowee! What a storm this afternoon, I hope the Queensland bloggers didn't suffer too much damage to their homes and cars. I was working at my job in the city today and the practice is on the seventh floor. Where I spend my day is in an office with 180 degree view from the north to the south, facing west.

On the way to the rail station, I heard on the radio that there was a storm warning for the morning (this was at 6.15am) and it was certainly black in the northwest. So once I got to work, I went on the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) site and could see quite a bit of activity up north, around about Rainbow Beach, on the radar - it wouldn't bother us for a couple of hours. I kept an eye on the radar and eventually that storm moved off the coast out to sea and the storm warning was cancelled.

I kept an eye on the radar for the next couple of hours as well as looking out the window. Nothing happening, blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Then high cloud moved in about lunchtime. I went off to eat just before 12. Came back half-an-hour later and holy guacamole! the sky was black. Flicked over to the radar and there it was, what is known as a super cell and it was fast moving! In 30 minutes it was bucketing, then I heard these cracks against the windows. Puzzled, I looked and listened some more. Hail!!

Oh no! My car was parked out in this weather - was my insurance up to date? Oh yes, that's something I am very careful about, for both car and house. Anyway, it was like night it was so dark. The rain was incredibly heavy, we couldn't see the buildings across the street! One of our doctors had to get up to the hospital as he had an operating list that afternoon, but was worried about the conditions and worried about his patients!

This carried on for only about 20 minutes and as suddenly as it started, the storm stopped. No thunder, no lightning, no hail - just a bit of rain. Then the sun was shining and it was over. In the meantime, thousands of houses had lost power, a couple of cars were crushed beneath falling trees, a house and a church lost their roofs. Incredibly no-one was injured.

Oh well, just another Queensland storm...

And for those of you who wonder - yes, I certainly do work, but this was quite a sight and our little office was crowded with other staff checking out the storm. It happens every time.

9 comments:

Gattina said...

OMG ! That must have been awfully scaring ! I lived it once in 1989 here in Belgium. There were a storm and I don't know why but I opened our window door and suddenly the curtain was sucked out. I quickly closed again and then it really started the wind was blowing at 200km/h (124miles) ! The next morning 3 of our trees in front lay across the street, the woods were very heavily damaged, roofs gone with the wind and unfortunately people killed by falling trees. This had been the heaviest storm we ever had over here and although there were others afterwards real strong once, but not like this one. I can never forget !

DellaB said...

cr-azy weather we are having at the moment. We got very heavy rain and one or two cracks of thunder, that was it - but less than 5 minutes drive away at the Tweed they had hailstones!

Your work-view sounds fantastic, we are 4 floors up and look back over the Gold Coast hinterland, things get pretty spectacular when the weather gets heavy - I can imagine how good it must be up 7 floors.
:-)
Della

Peter said...

Hi Robyn, Gympie was supposed to get a severe storm today too, but we got nothing except 5 minutes of heavy rain this morning.

TJ said...

Wow!!
I swear I didn't bring that one on...lol!!
Nice gentle rain is my thang...hehe!!
:-D
PS...Glad you were safe my friend!!

SnowWhite said...

it was a bit of a let down over our way too, I hoped for more rain to cool us off but here we are today and my feet are cold lol. Better go do a post now let you know what I have been up to lol
xx
shona

Carole Burant said...

Sometimes these kind of short lasting storms can cause the most damage! Glad that you were able to stay inside safe and I hope your car had no damage!! I heard they even got snow in some parts over there...I don't know, these days the weather pattern has been way out of whack!! Robyn, thank you so much for the kind words you left on my blog this morning regarding my dad, they were very much appreciated xoxox

Lee said...

Hi Robyn...we got hail (small) and heavy rain up here on the mountain but it didn't last for long. No damage here, thank goodness but I know parts of Brisbane copped a bashing. It's that time of the year!

Cold here today with the blustering wind...blowing up from down south where they've had snow! I like being able to put a jumper on again!

That pic of yours is very much like a watercolour painting of mine except mine is in different hues. I must post it one day and you will see the likeness!

Merle said...

Hi Robyn ~ Sounds like a scary storm,
but happily you are safe. We get black clouds some days, but no rain.
Thanks for your comments, glad you liked the post. I have no idea what your Mum is like but here are a few suggestions - -A nice white teddy bear, chocolates, an angel or fairy
garden gnome or an ornament for in the house. A book or framed verse about Mothers or a nice nightie.
Hope that has been some help.Take
care, Love, Merle.

Granny said...

Sounds almost like our tornados. Glad everyone is okay.