And Now for the Weather

La Niña has been playing havoc with the weather for quite some time now, but since the beginning of November it has gone to a new level.

I mentioned that it started raining on the evening of Halloween.  Well, it rained all night and we received 42mm.  Many places further west and south received much more.  As everything is already saturated, it has caused widespread flooding across western and souther NSW.   Forbes, to our west, has received flood levels not seen since 1952 and Cootamundra received flash flooding, which inundated about 200 homes.  You can’t prepare for that at all.

Here at Bathurst, the Macquarie River once again covered the “Low Level Bridge”.  This was on Tuesday morning.  See the level is just at the base of the “Gordon Edgell Bridge” sign on the left.

It continued to rain on Tuesday, with us receiving a further 12mm.  By mid afternoon the river level was much higher (see the level on the “Gordon Edgell Bridge” sign).  It was forecast to reach major flood levels that evening, but fortunately peaked slightly lower than that.  It was still the highest the river has been for many years, although not nearly to the flooding of houses stage.  Thank goodness.

All that water has now got to flow down to the Burrendong Dam and then further downstream, where there will be flooding for ages.  You really have to feel for those affected.   As well as the towns, so much farmland and crops are under water, just as they are nearing harvest. It must be heart breaking.

Following the rain, we had a cold snap.  In this part of the world they say not to plant your frost tender plants until after Melbourne Cup Day, which is the first Tuesday of November.  Even then, we often have to cover them to protect from frosts. Mick and I usually plant earlier, knowing we have to cover them.  Well, this cold snap was a little extreme.  On Wednesday (the day after Melbourne Cup) there was snow on the higher parts of the Central Tablelands - Orange, Blayney, Oberon, Yetholme.  That is very unusual.

Of course, on that day we had to take our little car up to Orange for its annual service.  What is it with us lately?  We had feral weather when we took the ute to have its service in Geraldton in WA as well.  

You could see the snowy clouds towards Blayney as we drove up to Orange.  

While we were there it did snow some more.  At eleven o’clock in the morning it was still snowing and had rocketed up to 3 degrees C and feels like minus 3 degrees!!!  That’s crazy!!!

We took a detour home via Blayney and as we neared Bathurst you could see some clearer weather in front of us and it was a balmy 8 degrees C at home.

Today is Thursday.  The weather is still cold, as in winter time temperatures, and the low level bridge is still closed.  It should be open tomorrow.

But……now for the next twist to the tale……somehow, due to the flooding, the main natural gas line to Bathurst, Oberon, Wallerawang and Lithgow has been ruptured.  About 20,000 homes woke up this morning with no gas! We are very lucky, as we have a caravan and I was able to have a hot shower in there.  Many aren’t as lucky.  We mainly use a gas heater, but do have a couple of small electric heaters and have solar, so once again, no real issue.  We just can’t use the cooktop.  

Apparently, the gas has been reconnected to Bathurst, but a technician has to attend each and every premises with gas to check it before it can be reconnected.  They anticipate it will be several days before everyone is up and running again.

Oh, and a frost is forecast for tomorrow morning.  We will once again be covering our plants.  We don’t want to lose our tomatoes now.

It never rains but it pours.

Here’s hoping things get back to something like normal soon.