As you may well have noticed if you live in Melbourne, the predictions of a world-ending storm hitting the city on Friday and Saturday didn’t quite materialise. Sure, it was a helluva storm, but it didn’t quite match the Bureau of Meteorology‘s forecast of an “absolutely massive” deluge so fierce lives were in danger.
“Half the inhabitants of Melbourne have never ever seen anything like this,” BOM’s senior forecaster Scott Williams said on Thursday. “It is an event that poses a threat to life.”
Updated Severe Weather Warning for #Victoria available here: https://t.co/JrHe5r6hFC pic.twitter.com/5BHNJG5d3B
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) December 1, 2017
Despite the fact it didn’t quite spin that way, the BOM reckons they were still pretty spot on – it was just a nice bonus that it didn’t hit Melbourne quite as hard.
The weather bureau’s Victorian manager Dr Andrew Tupper told News Corp that “the way that it’s panned out has been similar to what we were predicting.”
He says that if the bureau could have its time again, it’d make the exact same recommendations to Melbournites:
You judge the severity of the event, before you know exactly where that event is going to hit. That’s why we went out very hard because we could see it was certainly going to be a large and impacting weather event. We’re getting much better at forecasting it but we know we won’t always get it with precision three or four days before the event.
And once you get out of your bloody inner-city bubble, you’ll note that some areas actually did get thoroughly rinsed – like the towns of Myrtleford and Euroa, which have received messages urging residents to evacuate ahead of a possible flooding event.
The SES has received more than 1300 calls for help so far, about half of which come from the Melbourne metropolitan area.
Look, no matter which was you spin it, it’s hard to deny that it’s a bit bloody wet out, aye?
