South Australia storm

It's been a bit nasty out there recently. I hope all boats are in the harbour.

We've been lashed by a big cold front coming in from the southern ocean. Sustained winds of 40-50 knots. The whole state has been without power for the last 12 hours after some of the high voltage towers collapsed in the wind causing domino effect of issues. Airport/trains/trams all shut down yesterday.

Waves in the Port Lincoln area are reported to be 11 meters (36 feet). I'm glad my boat is securely tied in the marina. I might have to check on her today.

I saw that on windyty earlier today, after someone mentioned it in the weather thread. It was by far the windiest place on the planet at the time. Pretty wild stuff. I hope you get your lights back soon!

We've got power on here now, but there are some people who will be waiting a while.
More than 20 high voltage transmission towers collapsed or were torn out the ground. That along with hundreds of lightning strikes and heavy rain has made a mess of some of the electricity transmission infrastructure.

Luckily no deaths or serious injuries so far.

Another wild night of wind and rain, but it looks like the worst is over here. The storm is heading towards Sydney & Melbourne but hopefully it loses some of it's punch before it gets there.

I checked on the boat yesterday and added a few lines. Luckily we have floating docks, as the water level is higher than I've ever seen it.

Not the time to own waterfront property.

Glad to hear you got through last night ok. Hopefully repairs to the electricity system will have everyone back on line.
Windy in Sydney last night, forecasts don`t suggest we will get similar weather but it may be a different story south in Victoria and Tasmania. Right now the barometer at home has risen slightly to 995.

Is SA back on power? All I read here is debate about renewable energy reliance.
At present a big westerly in Sydney is blowing the oysters off the rocks.

BruceK said:

Is SA back on power? All I read here is debate about renewable energy reliance.
At present a big westerly in Sydney is blowing the oysters off the rocks.

Click to expand...

A beautiful spring day today.
There still are a few areas in western SA waiting for power; it's been 3 days now.
A few federal politicians are trying to blame the outage on renewable energy without using any facts. It works. Plenty of people believe it.

I get that having to close wind generators because of the windstorm did not cause the outage. As I read it, it was loss of transmission ability, with towers and wires trashed. But, had they survived, was there sufficient energy to transmit after the wind generators closed. I`m wondering if there are 2 issues,rather than one.

BruceK said:

...blowing the oysters off the rocks.

Click to expand...

I am so stealing this Australian colloquialism.

Worst wind on the west coast for decades, trawler on the beach and yacht Dragged mooring for a mile Sunk at the jetty after colliding with other craft on the way through at Streaky Bay.
30ft seas at wedge island and all the port Lincoln fishing fleet restricted.power back on ater 50 hours.

I hope the weather is easing and life is returning to normal. Eastern Australia often gets its weather pre used from the west, so the strong westerlies here are probably remnant of what you had.
Today the wind is gusting strong enough to blow the dog off the chain (another Aussie-ism for NS,not that I approve of dogs being chained up). A series of strong westerlies are coming through, not unusual this time of year, but unusually protracted with the barometer still <1000. I doubled one of the lines on my boat today.
We have a lot of rural flooding too,and Lake George, which mysteriously fills and empties(located near Canberra the national capital), is full for the first time in 20 years.