The first major cold front of winter crossed the coast yesterday - and the storm that came with it was pretty much what they always are. Wind gusts reached 111 kph, there was hail and heavy rain and it got pretty chilly by Perth standards with the maximum 18°C and the minimum 10°C. That might not sound too bad but when you remember the maximum was 26°C only a fortnight ago you can see why we might be shivering. It's not that we don't get some colder nights during winter - there are always a few around 2°C or 3°C - but it's a sudden change and that's a bit of a shock to the system. The storm has caused a lot of power outages due to power lines coming down with thousands of homes still without power, some minor flooding and there are fences down, roofs damaged and trees uprooted all over the city. My neighbour, who is involved with a theatre company, has just come in to say they've had to cancel today's performances because the area around and including the theatre is still without power All pretty average for a winter storm here.
Still, while this is an average storm, about every ten years we get hit by a severe storm - and by severe I mean major damage. This can mean power outages lasting up to a week, hail damage (in 2010 thousands of vehicles were written off due to severe hail damage alone), flash flooding and millions of dollars of damage to homes despite our stringent building regulations. It's not just tropical areas that suffer storm damage after all.
Does this make me want to live anywhere else? Not really. Nature does what it wants no matter where you live and I don't think there's a place on the planet where something disastrous can't happen if conditions are right. For the most part our climate is pretty good (apart from the occasional heatwave in summer and the odd winter storm - and a bit more rain wouldn't hurt) so why would I want to move.
3 comments:
Those kinds of storms aren't funny though are they. When we lived in North Carolina we went through a few hurricanes and lost power for a week on a couple of occasions. Considering our water was pumped from a well, this was very difficult.
I gather you still have power. We never had any more outages once we got a generator.
We do still have power - much to our surprise because usually the power goes out here whenever this happens. At least we're well prepared with candles, lamps and a small gas stove. Just as well because a second front, stronger than the last one, is about to hit us. I just had a look at the radar and it looks very intense.
Well best of luck Helen. Do you have a barbecue. We used to use ours a lot in a power cut. Here, living in an apartment, we don't have one for safety reasons.
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