Since yesterday it has been cooler here in West Wollongong, but we still get great skies. These were taken around 7.30 am.
Category Archives: nature
To Sydney as the wet approaches–pinhole shots
Yes, looks like the Queensland wet is spilling our way.
Weather forecasters have warned heavy rain and flash flooding could hit the Illawarra this evening as severe weather from an ex-tropical cyclone in Queensland moves south.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued storm and wind warnings for the Hunter, Sydney metropolitan and Illawarra areas today, predicting rainfall of up to 300 millimetres in isolated areas, damaging winds and potential flash flooding throughout much of eastern NSW.
The warning prompted State Emergency Service (SES) Illawarra region controller Greg Murphy to cut short his trip to Taree to assist northern NSW crews and return home. He said Illawarra crews were on standby.
“At this stage the bureau’s best prediction is that the severe weather may arrive in the Illawarra late [today],” he said.
“We’ve been advised of rainfall up to 300 millimetres in isolated areas and up to 150 millimetres across large parts of the Illawarra, as well as the possibility of flash flooding and storm damage due to strong winds.
“We also know the North Coast is experiencing high seas with significant swell, which could also extend down the coast to the Illawarra.”
Yesterday I ventured up to Sydney. I decided that pinhole was the way to go for these shots from the train between Scarborough and Stanwell Park.
An absolutely ordinary rainbow
Bit wet at The Bates Motel
Batty again…
In my post on my other blog yesterday — Mostly Australian… – I mentioned that Friday’s record heat killed off quite a few of the fruit bats that have colonised an area of bush between here and Figtree – thousands of the things remain. I checked.
5.40 pm and 6.15 pm yesterday on day of record heat in Wollongong
Views of Mount Kembla from my window (top) and from my street (bottom) taken 35 minutes apart.
Read the Mercury’s report.
The temperatures were about five degrees higher than forecast.
There were multiple triple-0 calls for cases of heat exposure, including for a 70-year-old man at Windang, a 45-year-old woman at Austinmer Beach and a 26-year-old man at Cordeaux Heights, who was working on machinery when he succumbed to the effects of heat exhaustion.
Statewide, the Ambulance Service of NSW had responded to 44 cases of heat exposure – one third of whom were for people over 60 – by 3pm.
Over the same period there were 89 reports of people falling unconscious or fainting and 37 instances of vomiting.
“Many of those cases are attributable to the heat,” an ambulance spokeswoman said.
It was also the hottest day in recorded history in Sydney, which experienced more heat-related illness, transport chaos and even melting roads and ice rinks.
The mercury hit 45.8 at Sydney’s Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, exceeding the previous record of 45.3 set on January 14, 1939.
The record temperature was similar to that recorded in places in the NSW far west, such as White Cliffs, which sweated the day out in around 44-degree heat.
That was topped by temperatures in Penrith, in western Sydney, which reached 46.5 degrees.
Sparks from Sydney’s monorail briefly set fire to trees and grass near the entertainment centre while at the Big Day Out music festival in Homebush, a St John Ambulance spokesman said the organisation treated 200 people, mostly for dehydration.
For the Fahrenheit-familiar, Wollongong yesterday scored around 115.
Neil's Wollongong & Sydney 