Super Storm Cell Hits Canberra: The Aftermath
Last night’s storm was a cracker - in fact it was what is known as a supercell! There is widespread damage throughout the inner north of Canberra with most of Civic closed today along with the ANU and numerous schools and other businesses. I made it into work just before the ANU was ‘closed’ and was greeted with a few surprises - according to the ABC over 70 buildings on campus received flood damage. The internal roof of the brand new Le Couter building (opened late last year) has collapsed as the downpipes clogged with hail, 2 inches of water has flooded the ground floor, several windows have been broken near the workshops here at RSPhysSE and people have been seen shovelling hail from the roof of the new John Curtin School of Medical Research. The huge solar thermal dish at the back of the School was in the ‘up’ position last night and undoubtedly its glass panes will have shattered - it probably filled with hail as well. Fortunately there was almost no damage to the Oliphant and Wiegold Buildings where our offices and labs are respectively. So our experiments are all safe!
Here are some photos that I took last night in Campbell and this morning as I walked around our end of the ANU campus. The photo of the open expanse is the causeway near my unit that was a torrent of water last night.
February 28th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Well, in the hope that nobody was hurt, it’s time to smile and invest in the local construction companies! I’m glad to see that I can see what’s up with you so easily. I hope the PhD stuff is going well—you’re probably still going to beat me out, but I’m going to give you a run for your money on that one. IEPC?
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 am
G’day Luke! How is life in Princeton? I’ve heard people say that the storm was sponsored by O’Brien Glass, the local window replacement company. They have been doing a roaring trade! PhD stuff is getting there. Working on my first paper which will be for JP&P. I’d love to go to IEPC, the website is now up (http://www.iepc2007.org/). I’ve applied for a travel scholarship to go. Fingers crossed!