A fifth of South Australia lost power yesterday due to a nasty storm.
You would think with all the climate models predicting more of every kind of extreme weather that South Australia, of all places, which is spending millions to prevent this sort of weather, would have upgraded their transmission lines to cope with it? Then again, maybe the models didn’t exactly predict these, not-so-extreme 120km/hr gusts.
Still Adelaide has a good desal plant to help them cope with climate change.
That wasn’t the case back in 1948 when a cyclone went through.
Roofs were blown off, flash floods occurred and a frigate washed ashore in 1948. (Click to read it all).
For the poor people of the west coast of SA, this may be their fourth blackout in four months. Some had another blackout last week due to lightning and a wind gust of “up to 111km/hr”. It doesn’t look like this has anything to do with renewables, it appears to be inadequate infrastructure and probably the return of a natural weather cycle (Adelaide was hit by a cyclone in 1948, widespread damage in 1954, much damage in 1927, and in 1910 and 1916):
Almost one-fifth of South Australian homes are without power after a severe storm lashed the state overnight, forcing power lines down.
South Australian emergency services minister Peter Malinauskas said 125,000 homes were now without power throughout the state, 19 per cent of all households, the result of trees falling on power lines with State Emergency Services attending 1000 calls since 120 km an hour winds hit around midnight.
Is that it? Gusts of 120km an hour:
Tina Donaldson, senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology said the strongest wind gust in the state was 120 km/h, recorded at Mount Crawford in the AdelaideHills. Port Augusta saw gusts as high as 96 km/h.
Donaldson said it was also the third-wettest December day on record in Adelaide, with between 40 and 60mm of rain falling on the Adelaide plains in 24 hours, and between 70 and 100mm in the Adelaide Hills.
A hint of “climate change blame” already:
Roberts said that his anecdoctal experience has suggested storms like this are getting worse in South Australia.
Roof, supposed to last for 35 more years, blows off:
The roof of a Glenelg Oval grandstand was blown off in the storm.
“The ferocity of the storm, really was strong,” City of Holdfast Bay Mayor Stephen Patterson said.
“That roof wasn’t due to be replaced for 35 years. That’s really taken us by surprise.”
h/t David M