The 2003 Melbourne thunderstorm was a severe weather

Severe weather

Severe weather phenomena are weather conditions that are hazardous to human life and property.- Examples Include :Severe weather can occur under a variety of situations, but three characteristics are generally needed: a temperature or moisture boundary, moisture, and , instability in the...

 event that occurred over the city of Melbourne, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and surrounding areas of Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, from 1 December to 6 December 2003. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology called the storm a "once in 100 year event".

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the storm formed at around midnight on the night of 2 December over Craigieburn

Craigieburn, Victoria

Craigieburn is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 26 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hume. At the 2006 Census, Craigieburn had a population of 20,784....

, then grew in size as it moved in a south-easterly direction (the Bureau issued a severe thunderstorm warning based on their observations at 11.38pm). The two hours from midnight to 2am saw extremely heavy rainfall, with some areas recording more than 100mm of rain in that time. The rapid rain fall caused flash flood

Flash flood

A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...

ing, which resulted in extensive damage to property.

A number of motorists were trapped on the roofs of their cars as chest-high floodwater accumulated under the Bulleen Road Bridge on the Eastern Freeway. They were rescued by Melbourne's Metropolitan Fire Brigade

Metropolitan Fire Brigade (Melbourne)

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade , also known as the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, provides firefighting, rescue, and hazardous material incident response services to the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...

 using two maritime response unit boats. Severe hail

Hail

Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...

storms caused thousands of dollars of damage to cars in the suburb of Lilydale

Lilydale, Victoria

Lilydale is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 35 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district situated in the Olinda Creek valley. At the 2006 Census, Lilydale had a population of 13,887...

. Rail company Connex Melbourne

Connex Melbourne

Connex Melbourne was a wholly owned subsidiary of French company Veolia Environnement, which had a franchise from the State Government of Victoria to operate all suburban passenger rail services in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In August 2007, Connex's contract was extended to 30 November 2009....

 announced that flooding and power damage at Blackburn

Blackburn railway station, Melbourne

Blackburn is a railway station on the Lilydale and Belgrave railway lines in Melbourne, Australia. It is located between Railway Road and South Parade in Blackburn, about west of Blackburn Road. The station is 17.4 kilometres by rail from Flinders Street Station...

, Surrey Hills and Boronia railway stations would cause transport delays the following day. Victoria Police

Victoria Police

Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. , the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, along with over 400 recruits, reservists and Protective Service Officers, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.-Early history:The Victoria Police...

 arrested two people in connection with incidents of looting

Looting

Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...

 in Fairfield

Fairfield, Victoria

Fairfield is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Darebin and Yarra...

 which had occurred during the height of the storms.

The Bureau of Meteorology referred to the 2003 Melbourne Storms as a "once in 100 year event" but two similar storms, the 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm

2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm

The 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm was a severe weather event that occurred between 2 February and 3 February 2005 which produced 120 mm of rain in Melbourne, the highest total since records began. Every suburb in Melbourne, parts of eastern Victoria and the Geelong/Bellarine Peninsula were...

 and the 2010 Victorian storms

2010 Victorian storms

The 2010 Victorian storms were a series of storms that passed through much of the Australian state of Victoria on 6 March and 7 March 2010. One of the most severe storms passed directly over Greater Melbourne, bringing lightning, flash flooding, very large hail and strong winds to the state's capital...

, have hit Melbourne both which were also called a once in 100 year event.

External links

• Photo Gallery, The Age
  The Age
  The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
  
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• STORMPLANET - Severe Event Reports
• Radar loop of the storm over Melbourne