1998

12th January 1998

I was leading a youth camp at Stockport (near Hamley Bridge) during this week. The widespread thunderstorms that swept across SA during the early afternoon on the 12th and then again during the 13th played havoc with our plans. Heavy storms on the 12th gave One Tree Hill 35mm in half an hour. Torrential rain caused flash flooding near Hamley Bridge in the mid-north (10kms from Stockport and about 60km north of Adelaide) and recorded 48mm. On the Eyre Peninsula an unofficial reading of 87 mm was received from the Kelly - Barna area.

While Cleve Airport recorded 29 mm in 30 minutes and 44 mm in 90 minutes. In total Cleve received 51mm, and Kimba 53, where a house was flooded. A factory roof collapsed at the suburb of Greenfields and minor flooding occurred at Semaphore. Winds damaged cabins at a caravan park at Middle Beach and flash flooding caused $68,000 damage to a house and shops, and heavy rain caused the collapse of a hotel ceiling as 23 mm fell "in minutes".

The storms also affected Victoria during the late afternoon and evening, giving scattered rainfalls of 20 to 30mm. (Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne's southeastern suburbs, however, scored 91mm in a storm between 7 and 9PM, an unusually high storm total for Victoria.) The storms caused some damage in Victoria, and lightning in the state started 40 forest fires, all of which were quickly contained.

13th January 1998
Widespread storms again occurred during the day and evening across South Australia and Victoria giving a sprinkling of rainfall totals between 15 and 25mm. Storms again produced some heavy falls in the Adelaide and Mt Lofty region, Mallala (again not far from Stockport) receiving 56mm! And 47 mm fell at South Para reservoir. The storms caused flash flooding in several of Adelaide's north and northeastern suburbs, and a heavy thunderstorm dumped 30 to 40 mm on Mount Gambier city in half an hour; streets, shops and houses were flooded with damage in excess of $200,000.