Weather News

Thunderstorms set the skies alight in the NT

Tristan Meyers, Wednesday August 26, 2015 - 13:06 AEST

A spectacular thundery display last night brought unseasonal rainfall for parts of the NT.

In just one night, Tennant Creek collected 19.2mm, their highest August total in 45 years of records. The historical town of Arltunga also had a bit of a dousing, receiving a health 7.2mm. This is makes their best August rainfall since 2010.

A heat trough was responsible for these scattered thunderstorms. This trough drew moisture in from the warm, tropical waters to the north. As the trough shifted east, it caused thunderstorms to pop up from around midday yesterday.

Within an 800 km radius of Tennant Creek, over 26 000 lightning strikes were detected.

Scattered thunderstorms such as these are more common in the summer months, when the atmosphere is generally a lot warmer.

Areas of rain with a few embedded thunderstorms are likely again over the next few days as an upper trough moves east over the nation.

- Weatherzone

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