Caloundra's Turn For A Storm

Thursday had been warm and sunny. The pool looked inviting so I grabbed a book mid afternoon and made my way poolside. It was very pleasant there, a coolish breeze, plenty of shade and I could have a quick swim when ever I wanted. The beer was nice and cold too.

Just on 4 pm I thought I heard some thunder from the south. I quick look in that direction showed a heap of black clouds heading our way. That gave time to clear any washing from the line (wet towels, bathers, etc) and to put away the large umbrella and ready things for a storm. Before long the black cloud was upon us.

The wind blew up and the palms started to be blown about, pieces of palm fronds were blown into the pool. At first there were just a few spots of rain but then it started pouring. This photo was taken from the front door looking across the street. I was busy taking photos and movies. The rain pelted down and the water level in the pool began to rise! As the wind died down, the rain continued! 20 minutes of rain yielded almost 30 mls, (1.2 inches).

The rain was gone as quickly as it arrived. This photo was taken 5 minutes after the rain stopped. The sun came back out again and the humidity level rose! Remember to click on these photos for a larger view, then "Back" to return to this page.



Trish is off to Quilters Club today. I was back to the Chiropractor! Later there will be a little shopping to be done before Sri Lanka Vs Australia live One -Day Cricket from Sydney. Tough life isn't it.

Also great to see the share market back in positive territory again today!

Storms Hit The South East Corner .. But Not Here!

The radio was predicting severe weather conditions for all of S.E. Queensland yesterday. Strong winds, flash flooding and heavy rainfall totals were predicted. I put a weather cover over the BBQ and strapped it down, removed loose items from the backyard and kept my eye the weather radar on the computer. There is a link to the radar on the right hand side of this page "Brisbane Weather Radar Loop".

Radio reports came in of places receiving 4 inches (100mls) of rain in an hour or so, of flash flooding and even of the death as a teenager who body surfed down a flooded drain way until he caught his foot and was drowned. Parts of Brisbane were under water, cars and houses were flooded and the radar showed heavy rain all around Caloundra. The sky blackened, the wind picked up and eventually drops of rain started to fall on us. But that was all!



This morning I tipped 2mls (8pts) out of the rain gauge! Such is the way the weather can be so localized here.

I enjoy playing around with this blog page. For an interest I also keep rainfall totals for the year and I have just discovered "Google Documents". I now can upload my rainfall charts into Google Documents available for anyone to see. Under Les' Links on the right hand side of this page is a link to "Les' Caloundra Rainfall Figures". here you can see how I set this up. It is easy for me to update and I can do it from any PC anywhere in the world.

For those overseas, if you roughly divide the totals by 25 you will be able to easily convert mls to inches. 100mls divide by 25 = 4 inches. Our current total for the year is about 375 mls, divide this by 25 and you get 15 inches so far in 2008!

A nice sunny day today expected to get to low 30's! With all the recent rain it will be humid though.

Trish went to "Stitchers" club yesterday and enjoyed the gossip going on. She even won the fruit and vegie tray which they raffled. Trish was very proud of herself.

We All Wish It Would Go South!

The rain that is ....

Tuesday was a showery day in this part of Australia. This picture was taken from the internet and shows rain bearing down on Caloundra last night. It gave us another 15 mls of rain and a daily total of 21 mls. That gives us 125 mls or 5 inches of rain in the first 6 days of February. A few more mls of rain and we will have already received the average total rainfall for both January and February put together and we still have 3 weeks to go this month! If you click on the photo it will show a bigger photo. Caloundra is about 1 cm (.5 of an inch) from the top. Remember to click on "Back" to return to this page.

The forecasters are already putting out warnings for severe storms to come in from the west this afternoon! However sunny weather is then expected to return over the next few days.

Despite all the rain it sure isn't cold. It is high 20's and quite humid, OK if you have a ceiling fan nearby!

Meanwhile people in Melbourne are crying out for rain, it is very dry down there!

I have a back problem which flares from time to time. It 'went' again on Monday so I have been in a little discomfort the last day or so. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and it is certainly better today. After a severe working over it can take a day or so to settle down again. Before visiting the Chiro, I hastily put another brew on. I have to carry a 22 litre container filled with brew to the garage to sit for a week. I didn't want to try this after having my back treatment!

Trish is back to her Stitchers Group today.

Rain All Around Us!

I tipped 23 mls out of the rain gauge this morning after getting rid of 59 mls yesterday morning. That is over 3" of rain altogether in the last two days. Yet this morning Maroochydore, a mere 25 k's away, had only a few mls while parts south of Brisbane 130k's away had 250 mls.

The rain is expected to continue over the next couple of days and people have been told to be ready for some big falls. These photos are both from daily newspapers and were taken in suburbs south of Brisbane.

As I look outside now the weather is fine though there is a fair bit of cloud about. It is 29 degrees or so (and obviously after the rain) it is very hot and sticky. Some towels are drying on the line in the sunshine. On the Gold Coast the Hinze Dam is 30cms (1foot) above the wall going down the spillway!

I got this photo out of one of the daily newspapers too!

Wet Sunday

Showers and some heavy rain has put a stop to bike riding these last two mornings. I tipped another 59mls of rain from the rain gauge this morning and then removed a large Cane Toad from the pool. The golf club did its trick much to the delight of the local 'black ravens' (or better known as crows!) as they came in for their brekky!

On Saturday morning I headed off as a guest to the Sunshine Coast Computer Club. There were a few winces of pain and looks of disdain when I mentioned I had 'that' program and I managed to get it for free off the internet. I have since discovered thoughts such as this (pirated software) are strictly taboo!

But it was a bit of fun and it was great to assist some people with their computer stuff. One older lady was there with her 2 year old laptop and she had never done a scan for spyware in that time. She downloaded and installed Spybot Search and Destroy, updated it with the latest definitions and then discovered she had over 500 pieces of spyware on her laptop which Spybot then removed! The laptop runs a bit better now! She was also getting an error message as she started her computer up each time. Via Google, we discovered it was something to do with the laptop 'overheating' (a continual problem she has had with this laptop) so we are hopeful a System Restore will solve that one. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself, even if I found some of the stuff a bit basic.

Many of the people there (about 70) are older women. It is great to see them having a 'go'. They are eager to learn about their new found 'toys'. I was interested to see a scanner there which does 35mm slides. This is something I am very keen to learn about when I go back next Saturday morning.

And I fixed my Skype up too. I can now get video in via the "Call Tab". I went back 1 version of Skype to 3.5, installed that and the video now works. We spoke with Kate, Arj, Charli and James on Friday afternoon and had the video working too. As soon as Charli sees herself on the screen she begins to sing, count to 20 and then claps her own performances.

James just sits there, wondering if he is hungry again yet. He just smiles and is always happy. Nanna (Trish) really loves it!

Kate and Arj have been a bit ill with a 24 hr virus lately!