1997

14th January
Severe thunderstorms caused wind and flash flood damage in central and eastern districts. Streets, homes and businesses were flooded in Port Pirie and Whyalla. Both cities received about 50mm of rain in under an hour. Severe winds also damaged several roofs and brought down dozens of trees and power lines in Port Pirie.
Heavy rain also caused flash flooding in a number of Yorke Peninsula centres, including Maitland, Moonta, Yorketown, Edithburgh and Coobowie. In Maitland, falls of between 35 and 65mm were recorded in about 40 minutes. Other areas to experience wind damage included Wirrabara, Murray Town (Flinders), Mt Pleasant (Mt Lofty Ranges) Karoonda and Geranium (Murraylands). The highest recorded wind gust was 120 km/h at Woomera Airport where two hangars were extensively damaged.

4th - 8th February
Heavy rain caused flash flooding in many areas of northern South Australia causing around 10-20 million dollars worth of damage. Also on the 4th 81mm of rain fell in 105 minutes at The Twins Station (Northwest Pastoral). Falls of 80-120mm in the Cleve area (Eastern Eyre Peninsula) on the 5th caused flooding of homes and businesses in Cleve and extensive damage to rural roads, fencing and contour banks. At Cleve 77mm of rain fell in 75 minutes. Falls of 200-300mm in the area between Manna Hill and Cockburn (Northeast Pastoral) on the 6th and 7th resulted in severe flash flooding damage. Floodwater poured through station homesteads; fences, dams and roads were washed away; the Barrier Highway was closed for several days and the railway line suffered major damage. At Outalpa Station (near Olary) 274mm of rain was recorded with 192mm falling in 4 hours on the 7th. On the 8th a thunderstorm dumped 84mm in 33 minutes at Kokatha Station (Northwest Pastoral) and at Appila (Flinders) 76mm of rain fell in 20 minutes.

March
In Adelaide, the maximum temperature did not exceed 30 C on any day during March for the first time since records began in 1857!!

July
In July several centres in SA recorded their lowest ever monthly rainfall, especially in the Riverland. My parents at McLaren Vale recorded only 22mm making it the lowest July rainfall in the 60 years of records there.

31st October
Gale force winds and heavy rain, which started in the early hours of the 31st October and continued through to late afternoon, caused widespread wind damage and localised flooding across metropolitan Adelaide and much of eastern South Australia. The highest recorded wind gust was 140 km/h at the very exposed Sellicks Hill site (Mt Lofty Ranges). There were numerous recordings of 60-70 km/h average wind speeds and gusts of 90-100 km/h across the Adelaide metropolitan area, the Mt Lofty Ranges, Kangaroo Island, Yorke Peninsula, Riverland and Lower Southeast. Much of the wind damage resulted from uprooted trees and broken tree limbs falling across roads and power lines and onto houses. Many areas lost power; some for up to 48 hours. One woman was injured near Templers (Mid North) when a tree fell onto and crushed her car. The State Emergency Service received a record 1300 calls for assistance. The combination of wind and rain lead to the loss of hundreds of recently shorn sheep and lambs in the Mid North, Mt Lofty Ranges and Southeast.
The heavy rain caused localised flooding in the Mid North, metropolitan Adelaide, the Mt Lofty Ranges and Lower Southeast. Falls of 80-120 mm broke a number of daily rainfall records. This also led to the Wakefield river bursting it's banks near Port Wakefield on the 1st November.

10th November
A long lived severe thunderstorm was tracked from near Coonalpyn to Keith to Bordertown to Wolseley in the Upper Southeast district. Severe winds uprooted many trees near Keith and large hail, 3 to 4 cm in diameter, damaged crops near Coonalpyn in a 10 km wide swath from south of Keith to Bordertown. In Bordertown, the hail dented hundreds of cars, broke windows and stripped trees.

13-14th November
On the 13th thunderstorms affected the west and north of the state. On the West Coast, hail to 2 cm and severe wind gusts occurred at Yalata and 17 mm of rain in 10 minutes caused minor flooding in Ceduna. In the Northwest Pastoral district, severe winds lifted iron off roofs, blew over windmills and brought down trees and tree limbs at Kokatha Station, Lake Everard and Coober Pedy. In the Flinders, wind gusts to 100 km/hr brought down power lines and many trees in Port Augusta and damaged windmills in the Quorn area. At Moomba in the Northeast Pastoral district wind gusts to 106 km/hr damaged wind socks at the airport.
On the 14th several large thunderstorms brought localised heavy rain and hail to the Flinders district. At Gum Creek Station, near Blinman, 89 mm of rain was recorded in less than 90 minutes, causing flash flooding.

25th November
During the evening and night of the 25th, downbursts associated with almost dry thunderstorms caused very localised wind damage. The most serious damage occurred in the Adelaide suburb of Semaphore South, where one house lost its roof and several others were partly unroofed, fences were blown down, a window blown in, power lines brought down and dozens of trees blown over. A section of roof was lifted from a grandstand at Globe Derby Park at Bolivar, tree damage occurred near Balhannah and Strathalbyn in the Mt Lofty Ranges and at Maitland on Yorke Peninsula. A wind gust to 98 km/hr was recorded at Minnipa on the West Coast.