Well it’s been threatening to happen for the past week, but last night the skies finally opened on our little Valley and unleashed a tempest.
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There were reports of very strong winds, thunderstorms and patches of hail from Port Macquarie to the Northern Rivers.
One Utungun resident described the five-minute hail onslaught they received as “ferocious”.
“[We] got about 24mm, which was great, but the hail shredded a lot of trees,” Anne Sutton said.
According to Weatherzone records parts of our local area copped 50.6mm overnight.
But one resident out at Newee Creek recorded 79mm from the impact of the storm.
Michael Brougham from Valla said they received 69.5mm overnight – the highest rainfall they’ve had since March, and second highest in a year.
Terry Brown said he received 46mm near the Macksville Golf Course, but thankfully missed out on the hail.
And Spicketts Creek at Gladstone State Forest had an impressive 118mm, the highest on the Mid North Coast.
More localised data is still incoming.
And the rain doesn’t seem to be abating any time soon. The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting at least a 70 per cent chance of rain every day over the next week.
The BOM said, by way of explanation: “A low pressure trough lies over the state's inland whilst a high pressure system near Tasmania extends a ridge along the New South Wales coast. This high will gradually move east, reaching the Tasman Sea over the weekend where it will become stationary. This pattern will bring showers to much of the east and north of the state”.
Kim Westcott from Weatherzone said this weather activity was fairly typical for this time of the year.
“As we look to the seven day forecast we can expect to see more storm conditions coming tomorrow with wind from the west and rain from the south,” she said.
“On and off showers are likely for the rest of the week and then these storm conditions should ease over the weekend but will resurface again early to mid next week.
“That said people can possibly expect rain over the weekend as well.”
We weren’t the only ones caught in the crossfire – a man died after a tree crushed his home west of Byron Bay last night.
A neighbour called emergency services about 7pm, after she saw a large fig tree had fallen onto a cabin on Kings Road, Federal, 20km west of Byron Bay.
Officers from Tweed/Byron Police District, volunteers from the Brunswick Volunteer Rescue Association and Rural Fire Service, and paramedics went to the scene and found the occupant, a man aged 65, had died at the scene.
If you snapped any wild weather pics, we’d love to see them. Make sure you include your address and any details (like rain gauge data) in your caption.