RAIN - A Lot of It!

I am composing this late in the evening of February 16. On a pretty wild and blustery evening, with Tropical Cyclone Carlos hovering around Darwin - moving a little, but not often, and delivering a lot of rain.

In the 24 hours to 0900 today, rainfall around Darwin was mostly in the 250 - 380mm range with tops being 435mm. Our rain gauge certainly overflowed several times........and I have used the 435mm as our rainfall, as the site with this recording and ours, are usually very similar on a daily basis. Most areas close to the ocean front - and that is us, received much more rain than the official recording site of the Met Bureau at the airport, which had 340mm of rain recorded.

That is a LOT of rain.........and since then, about another 150mm has fallen today so far. Might exceed 200mm by 0900 tomorrow, the official "time to record". And more of the same is expected tomorrow too........

Biblical rain.......anyone for a new ark???

The creek below our street flooded across the road and into some houses at both high tides today, and last night there was mayhem with quite a few cars washed across the road, and a driver left hanging onto the traffic lights to stop being washed away. The airport has been closed since yesterday - wind too strong for aircraft operations, and may not re-open before Friday or Saturday.

And yes, it was a new alltime daily rain total for Darwin.......officially.... at the Met Bureau site at the airport, even though a bit less than our area.

The past 36 hours has seen wild wind around Darwin, although maximum gusts have only been around 100km/hr, about normal for a Category 1 cyclone. But it has just continued incessantly over that long period. Usually, it all over in 6 - 12 hours........but more is still to come. Wind has eased a little this evening, although it seems to have intensified a little in the past hour. But with Cyclone Carlos hanging around and doing loops around Darwin I guess we will get more wind than a normal "passing through" cyclone.

Lots of fallen trees, a few submerged cars, many roads impassable due to trees down as well as rain, swollen creeks and drains.

One fantastic point - and thank you NT Government - has been continuing electricity supply in our area, an area recently converted to underground electricity power, which the NT Government funded. Some areas around Darwin with overhead supply have been without power since last night, and might be so for a few days yet. Mainly due to wires damaged from falling trees.

Still more to come.......