Heavy Storms in Canberra Region

[Gavin O'Brien]

Hi all,

We attempted to drive to a Concert tonight, but we were defeated by the weather!

Just arrived home at 7.40pm to find we had recorded 41.7 mm of rain since 6 pm! Most of it in around 20 minutes from 6pm! 

We ended up in Belconnen, having missed the turn at Glenloch Interchange and ending up on Caswell Drive! The directions signs there are a disaster!

The rainfall varied from dry roads to flooded roads with near zero visibility at times!

As usual stupid drivers added to the tension of driving! 

We have recorded 107.5 mm for the month already.

Cheers,

Gavin

[Blair Trewin]

UNOFFICIAL

I used to say that the best way to bring rain to Canberra was to organise a cricket match there, but rugby (of either variety) seems to work just as well this year (the Raiders are playing at home tonight in a match which is supposed to kick off about now).

Blair

UNOFFICIAL

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From: aust...@googlegroups.com <aust...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gavin O'Brien <southsi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2026 7:53 PM
To: aust...@googlegroups.com <aust...@googlegroups.com>; Michael O'Brien <michael.o...@gmail.com>; Rachel Riches <rach....@gmail.com>; Chris Rule <car...@iprimus.com.au>; donwhite <donw...@weatherwatch.net.au>; John O'Brien <john_...@westnet.com.au>; Thomas Riches <thomas...@gmail.com>
Subject: [austpacwx] Heavy Storms in Canberra Region

 

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[Gavin O'Brien]

Hi Blair,

You are quite correct! I think from observation while driving up near the venue and checking rain gauge reports on the BOM site when we arrived home that we had by far the biggest recording. The airport recoded around 10 mm and Tuggeranong AWS 12.4mm. The Stadum at Bruce may have missed most of the storms as far as I can tell.

Cheers,

Gavin

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[Blair Trewin]

OFFICIAL

Have seen Weather Underground reports of up to 90mm in Gungahlin (though none of the sites on the Bureau page in that area seemed to have reported the last time I looked).

 

Blair

 

OFFICIAL

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[Don White]

Noticed 55mm at Ginninderra (Upstream Barton H'way) had 55 mm  and aHorse Park 48 mm & Giralang 35

I went  through intense burst of rain at St Ives yesterday afternoon  - gutters running 3 lanes of road wide  and splashing over medium strip - visibility 50 metres  then  200 metres along the road it was dry !! 

Don W

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[Gavin O'Brien]

Hi Blair and Don,

What struck me driving through the rain was the intensity,at times we couldn't see more than a cars length in front of us. It was on a part with the intense rainfall in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs when I lived in Sydney or later Far North Queensland! Absolutely torrential. 

I will have a look at the data from my PWS this morning to see the intensity of yesterday's event. Almost all of our rainfalls this year have come in intense storms. Definitely a change in rainfall events in summer time Canberra.

Cheers,

Gavin.

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[Gavin O'Brien]

Hi all,

I have now checked the manual rainfall gauges and completed a download of data from the PWS.

The total rainfall from the event was 41.5mm in my Marquis gauge and 46.0mm in the 5-inch gauge. The PWS recorded 42. 7mm.The gauges are all relatively close together so it shows how air currents can affect readings. The graph from the PWS shows the remarkably short time period of the most intense period of the storm and its abrupt commencement and cessation. I prepared a table from the readout recorded at 10-minute intervals.

24-hour rainfalls exceeding 50 mm are rare in Canberra. Most are associated with summer thunderstorms. I have gone through our records since 1991 and made a list of events. The largest 24-hour total was 97.4mm in January 1993 followed by 91.9mm in January 1995. 

Cheers,

Gavin

[Gavin O'Brien]

Hi all 

I missed sending the graph .Here it is.

Gavin