Top End Wet Season 2021-2022

No sea breeze today, still 33c at 5.30pm.... no rain or storms either.

Just a bog stock standard filthy type mid October type day.....a few isolated showers 20klm inland, sfa in the northern suburbs of Darwin.

Another quite shitty Top End 'build up' sorta day, 34c before noon and 22c dps. Guess I shouldnt complain as it will get way worse in the next 2 months before the onset of the monsoon.


From local guru, Pilko ( his FB Page )
Good morning trendsetters
And an awesome morning it is.
Big thanks to Joel for getting me a photo from within the clouds yesterday on his way back from out bush. That might have been the one that developed into the cell that dumped 88mm of rain on Beeboom Crossing yesterday afternoon.
Other good falls were 37mm at Labelle and 52mm at Adelaide River Tortilla Flats.
And those totals are pretty indicative of the weather we are getting at the moment. Reasonably isolated in nature but if you get under one of these slow moving cells you will score some hefty totals.
Today there is quite a bit of middle level cloud scattered about the Top End, residual muck from last nights action across the central parts.
Sometimes this cloud is very much a hindrance as it stifles convection and limits activity, but if it’s unstable enough it doesn’t tend to affect things too much.
Today I think it’s unstable enough to see plenty of afternoon activity and with marginal steer, there is a fair chance of activity encroaching on the Darwin City and suburbs.
There is a trough stretching across the base of the Top End, or just a bit south atm and that’s providing plenty of moisture anywhere north of this trough.
This trough is the tail end of a pretty significant and wild weather event that is stretching from the NT, right back into SA, via the East Coast and adjoining states, where a deep low is currently marching across Eyre Peninsula.
I will give an update on that system shortly.
Again as per standard procedures it’s a bit hit and miss in the Top End but I like today better than yesterday and we nearly copped it yesterday so here’s hoping.
Have a great day and stay hydrated folks

An early build up kinda day....a promising storm out in the distance, but they die in the arse before making it to the coast. You can see how dry it is, not a skerrick of green geass !

Nature's fireworks light up the skies of the Top End
( source: Weatherzone )
Storms sparked to life over parts of the Top End and Tiwi Islands on Saturday afternoon with some lingering late into the evening.

Storms initially flared up over far eastern parts of the Arnhem district but it was not long before western and central parts, along with the Tiwi Islands, saw storms as well.

The storms were triggered by a broad low-pressure trough lingering over much of the Northern Territory. The instability created by the trough combined with the warm, moisture laden air over northern parts of the territory provided the necessary ingredients to fuel the storms.

Storms mostly managed to dodge the weather stations however there were some decent rainfall totals including 20mm at Upper Seventeen Mile Creek and 18mm at Bradshaw. Although these totals were not overly high, the rain was very heavy at times, including at Bradshaw were 7.6mm of rain was recorded in just 10 minutes.

The storm also brought welcome relief to the oppressive heat of the day for those in Bradshaw. The maximum temperature there was 41.2 degrees - 2 above average for this time of the year. At 8pm it was still 37.5 degrees just before the storm moved over, which drew down colder air form the upper atmosphere, dropping the temperature to 22.5 degrees just after 9pm, this included a drop of five degrees in just 10 minutes.

Over 51,000 lightning strikes were recorded across the Top End and Tiwi Islands during Saturday afternoon and evening, including over 3000 ground strikes.

The low-pressure trough will continue to linger over the Top End on Sunday, bringing further risks of storms.

Exactly not the forecast we wanna see in coastal Darwin !

This beautiful nuke! Noisy, too. Sitting over Acacia Hills. ( known locally as the Acacia Appalachians ) No better example of a sea breeze boundary initiated thunderstorm! Like clockwork. The boundary rushes in and she explodes.
( pic by Jakob Gray )

The Top End and Northern Australian Heatwave.
Record-challenging October heatwave in central and northern Australia
( source: Weatherzone )
An intense early-season heatwave will send temperatures soaring across central and northern Australia this week, with some places likely to get close to their October records.

A hot air mass lingering over northern Australia will cause a string of very hot days in parts of the NT, northern WA and far western QLD between now and the weekend.

Temperatures will reach up to the mid-forties in some places, with daytime maximums rising more than 10ºC above average for this time of year. This will constitute a Severe-to-Extreme heatwave in parts of each state and territory in northern Australia.

On Tuesday, the mercury climbed as high as 43.6ºC in WA (Kununurra), 43.3ºC in the NT (Rabbit Flat) and 42.7ºC in QLD (Julia Creek). This was QLD's highest temperature in seven months.

On Wednesday, temperatures will return to similar levels and should reach at least 43ºC in the NT and WA. Alice Springs is forecast to hit 41ºC on Wednesday afternoon, which is less than 2ºC off the current weather station's October record.

While the sweltering heat will end by Thursday for Alice Springs, it’s going to linger into the back end of the week further north.

After reaching 43.3ºC on Tuesday, Rabbit Flat in the NT is forecast to reach 43ºC every day between Wednesday and Friday. This would be the site’s first run of four October days above 43ºC on record, with data going back to 1970.

Further north, some models suggest that the mercury could get close to 45ºC in far northern WA on Friday or Saturday.

Australia's highest temperature on record during October was 46.9ºC at Port Hedland in 2002. This is unlikely to be challenged during this week's heatwave.

A very uncomfortable night for sleeping without the aircon....i nearly weakened and switched it on.