Lightning strikes pummel state
Showers, lightning and thunder have lashed South Australia overnight, with a “light show” causing headaches for rail commuters this morning.
Spring storm in Adelaide's suburbs. Picture: Instagram/ @shane.curnow
Senior Meteorologist at the Bureau of Metereology Tom Boeck said Adelaide received around 10-15mm of rain overnight, but damage was limited.
“Yesterday was obviously a pretty hot day, it was 32.0 degrees in Adelaide and we’ve had a low pressure trough move across from the west, and a low pressure system to the South and that destabilized the atmosphere,” Boeck said.
“We started to see some thunderstorm activity occurring yesterday evening and then there was another batch that came through early this morning.
“It was a pretty slow moving trough so hence thunderstorms late yesterday evening and then early this morning – rainfall wise there was 10 millimeters of rain at our West Terrace bureau site.
Lightning at Port WIllunga. Picture Instagram/ @_S_H_B_photography
Overnight, South Australians were stunned by lightning strikes, which lit up the night sky and caused issues at the Mile End railway station this morning.
Adelaide Metro released a statement at around 6:30am stating that “services on the Seaford, Flinders and Belair rail lines were unable to enter or exit Adelaide Railway Station due to a possible lightning strike affecting track signalling at Mile End”.
However the issue has since returned to normal following the signalling issue, but commuters were warned to “expect residual delays”.
As the storm fronts rolled through, Adelaide residents took to social media to discuss the sudden weather changes.
How about this 5am storm rolling in, Adelaide? ? pic.twitter.com/FPNmxxHrM6
— Lana (@friggenawesome) November 9, 2022
Boeck said the storm front had passed this morning, with a dry forecast for Thursday.
“It’s dried up, so the activity has left us – it’s moved out to the southeast and east of the state.
“There’s some storms at the moment through the upper and lower southeast districts and there’s still some activity expected though generally through the eastern districts and through the Flinders – but Adelaide will be dry.”
He said there were no reports of any severe wind gusts from the bureau’s observation locations.
“It was just mostly a good light show and plenty of noise,” he said.
Adelaide is forecast to be partly cloudy today and reach a maximum of 24 degrees.
