Weekend downpour was a month’s rainfall, meteorologist says

The heavy downpour over the weekend equated to a months’ worth of rainfall, Chief Meteorologist at MeteoGib Stephanie Ball said.

Ms Ball told the Chronicle that rainfall was due to Storm Francis which brought a very wet weekend.

She said around 126mm of rainfall was recorded at the North Front Airport site, with most of this falling through Saturday night and Sunday.

The total rainfall equated to around a month’s worth of rain in 1-2 days compared to the average January monthly rainfall of 129mm.

“While it was very wet, it didn’t beat Storm Filomena in 2021 which saw 232.4mm fall in 2-3 days (Jan 6-8th), during which we recorded our wettest January day in 50yrs with 134.6mm falling in 24hrs,” she said.

“Other unofficial data for the weekend saw 95.8mm recorded on the MeteoGib Weather Station and 137.2mm in Devil’s Tower, where a Maximum Rain Rate of 182.8mm/hr was registered.”

“There was some thunder and hail during Saturday night, while some squally winds at times through Sunday.”