| Melbourne's BIG Storm 2nd - 3rd December 2003 Martin Ledwich, Craigieburn SES
|
It would
be stating the obvious that Tuesday 2nd December was a very unusual day in Melbourne.
During the day there had been several large thunderstorms that were extremely slow moving
and rather severe. From my office window in Exhibition St. I could see the large storm
that reeked havoc in Lilydale with hail stones the size of golf balls. Later in the
evening, more large storms could be seen over Kilmore and towards the west of the city.
The pics below are of that storm with the setting sun behind it showing the classic anvil
shape. That night, at around 10pm, I was in my back yard watching the lightning from the storm that originated over Kilmore and was now over Warburton when I noticed a large cloud forming just to the north of Craigieburn. It was growing with unbelievable speed, almost like watching a time lapse film. The moonlight was reflecting off it with surprising brightness and as it grew larger, I thought it would start to produce lightning. Within minutes, almost like someone had flicked on a huge switch, the cloud lit up with constant lightning. It continued to grow to the point where it completely filled my field of view to the north. I noticed a very large wave cloud rapidly moving south from the base of the main cloud. As this wave came over Craigieburn,
large hail stones started falling. In the distant north west I could hear a noise that
sounded like a freight train speeding down a hill. As the noise grew louder, the hail fell
heavier. Soon all hell broke loose and torrential rain and hail to about 3cm's was
falling. The main sound was still coming from the north west and appeared to be moving due
south. The storm seemed to hang over Craigieburn for an exceptionally long time.
Eventually it moved on to the south, the lightning remaining constant through the whole
time. The rain and hail started to ease and I waited for the SES pager to off. It did and
before too long we had about 10 calls for assistance from residences in Craigieburn and
Roxburgh Park. A few streets had flooded and several homes were inundated. One home's
guttering had torn itself from the main building under the sheer weight of the hail and
water. Piles of hail remained around the yard of this home for quite some time while other
houses around it appeared unaffected. |
