Samuel's Blog

Severe Storm and Flash Flooding warning (Update: Warning no longer in effect)

I really need to see about setting up automated alerts for these weather warnings…at the moment it’s either a case of me hearing the warning or seeing inclement weather. Tonight it’s the latter.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for FLASH FLOODING
For people in the SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, ACT and parts of the SOUTH COAST, RIVERINA, UPPER WESTERN and LOWER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 6:57 pm Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce very heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Griffith, Cobar, Canberra, Goulburn, Cooma and Bombala.

Heavy rainfall, (over 40mm in 30mins) has been recorded at both Snowball and Jerangle, (to the southeast of the ACT).

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
* Keep clear of creeks and storm drains.
* Don’t walk, ride your bike or drive through flood water.
* Unplug computers and appliances.
* Avoid using the phone during the storm.
* Stay indoors away from windows, and keep children and pets indoors as well.
* For emergency help in floods and storms, ring the SES (NSW and ACT) on 132 500.

The next warning is due to be issued by 10:00 pm.

If severe thunderstorms develop in the Sydney/Newcastle/Wollongong region or Canberra and Queanbeyan, a more detailed Severe Thunderstorm Warning will be issued to people in these areas.

Update: CANCELLATION SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

Issued at 9:38 pm Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

Severe thunderstorms are no longer occurring in NSW and the ACT.
End Update

Samuel

November 28th, 2007 at 07:25pm

Severe Storm Warning for a large section of New South Wales, and all of the ACT (Update: ACT no longer affected)

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales
TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for FLASH FLOODING
For people in the CENTRAL TABLELANDS, ACT, CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, SOUTH WEST SLOPES and parts of the SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, NORTH WEST SLOPES, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS, RIVERINA, UPPER WESTERN and LOWER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 3:23 pm Monday, 26 November 2007.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce very heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Orange, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Cobar and Bourke.

Cobar airport has already recorded 61 mm of rain in 2 hours today.

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
* Keep clear of creeks and storm drains.
* Don’t walk, ride your bike or drive through flood water.
* Unplug computers and appliances.
* Avoid using the phone during the storm.
* Stay indoors away from windows, and keep children and pets indoors as well.
* For emergency help in floods and storms, ring the SES (NSW and ACT) on 132 500.

The next warning is due to be issued by 6:25 pm.

If severe thunderstorms develop in Canberra and Queanbeyan, a more detailed Severe Thunderstorm Warning will be issued to people in this area.

Warnings are also available through TV and Radio broadcasts, the Bureau’s website at www.bom.gov.au or call 1300 659 218. The Bureau and State Emergency Service would appreciate warnings being broadcast regularly.

Update 6:45pm:
For people in the CENTRAL TABLELANDS, ACT, CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS, SOUTH WEST SLOPES, RIVERINA, UPPER WESTERN, LOWER WESTERN and parts of the HUNTER, SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, NORTH WEST SLOPES and NORTH WEST PLAINS Forecast Districts.

Issued at 5:24 pm Monday, 26 November 2007.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce very heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Orange, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Tibooburra, Cobar and Broken Hill.

Cobar airport has already recorded 61 mm of rain in 2 hours today.

The next warning is due to be issued by 8:25 pm.
End Update

Update 7:57pm:
For people in the CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, RIVERINA and parts of the CENTRAL TABLELANDS, SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS, SOUTH WEST SLOPES and LOWER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 7:50 pm Monday, 26 November 2007.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce very heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Orange, Dubbo, Parkes, Wagga Wagga, Griffith and Hay.

Severe thunderstorms are no longer occurring in the HUNTER, ACT, NORTH WEST SLOPES, NORTH WEST PLAINS and UPPER WESTERN districts and the warning for these districts is CANCELLED.

The next warning is due to be issued by 10:50 pm. (Unless it affects the ACT, it will not be reproduced here. See http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDN65156.shtml for further updates.)
End Update

1 comment November 26th, 2007 at 03:56pm

It’s good to see Civic is still providing amusement

For some reason I still have a Google alert set up for “Dickson College”, it doesn’t usually provide much of interest, but it did provide me with some amusement tonight.

Somebody named Molika, who has just submitted her enrolment application for Dickson College, wrote an article on her blog about some shopping she did in Civic. Whilst in Civic she was bombarded with people handing out political pamphlets…I’ll let her explain.

I went into the city today & you know how it is nearly the election day, there was so many people handing out pamphlet & yelling out of the top of their lungs how we should vote this party & so on. Well anyways, as i was walking this lady with a heap of pamphlet stopped me & i knew that she was about to give me one of those useless pamphlet so i said to her “I am not old enough to vote yet”. Which she replied with a smart arse comment “Oh what a shame, take one anyway & give it to someone you know”. I was gobsmacked! I was thinking, “does she have a hearing problem or something? I just told her that i was not old enough to vote! & now she’s giving me one of these crap pamphlet about how I should be voting for the greens?”. So i just walked off & gave her a dirty, whilst giving her the attitude i ripped up the pamphlet to bit & pieces and threw it out the bin! LOL!!! Should have seen her face, priceless

That story arrived at just the right time. I needed a good laugh, and Molika provided it. Thank you Molika.

Samuel

November 23rd, 2007 at 01:25am

It’s Just A Bit Me-Too

The RiotACT have been running a series of email interviews with the ACT’s set of parliamentary candidates for the federal election. They have sent the same ten questions to each candidate, and published their replies “in full and unedited”.

Question two is interesting:

What would you like to see as the first piece of legislative change brought about by your Government? What are your personal goals for your first year representing the ACT?

The incumbent Labor candidate for Fraser, Bob McMullan answered thusly:

The first piece of legislative change I would like to see is the repeal of Workchoices and the restoration of fairness in Australian Workplaces.
At a local level I would like to see a decentralisation of Commonwealth Government departments to Gungahlin, to ease the demand for parking facilities in Civic and reduce the level of traffic to the city centre.
I will also be working for an upgrade of the roads servicing Canberra International Airport.

A mere three days later, ACT Greens senate candidate Kerrie Tucker provided the following answer:

The first piece of legislative change I would like to see is the repeal of Workchoices and the restoration of fairness in Australian Workplaces.

At a local level I would like to see a decentralisation of Commonwealth Government departments to Gungahlin, to ease the demand for parking facilities in Civic and reduce the level of traffic to the city centre.

I will also be working for an upgrade of the roads servicing Canberra International Airport.

If Ms. Tucker had the same policy as Mr. McMullan, but actually took the time to write it herself, I’d be pleased. I wouldn’t agree with her as I am a fan of WorkChoices, but at least I’d know that she is willing to put in the effort as a representative.

This copy and paste effort is the last nail in her coffin for me. There is no way known that she can win my vote now.

And on a semi-related note, one of Ms. Tucker’s radio ads, authorised by Roland Manderson, is spoken by somebody who sounds like they’re pretending they’re elderly, and deliberately talking in a monotone and monopace voice. The best bit is the end, where it is announced that it is “spoken by Noel Simple”.

Even if I ignore the implausibility of the speaker being named Noel Simple, this is the only speaker named, which means that either the Greens aren’t naming the person reading the “spoken and authorised” announcement, or they’re both the same person, and the ad is a sham. I think it might be time to send an email to Ms. Tucker’s office to find out.

Update: A reply from Ms. Tucker’s office, in particular Thomas Burmester, Office Manager.

Mr Gordon-Stewart,

I’d like to at first address your issue with the radio announcement. Noel Semple is indeed an elderly man, in his eighties, and is no actor – his voice could not me more genuine. I know Mr Semple well as I keep all used stamps received in the office for him, which he collects for charity. I intend to address your other issues as soon as I can consult with Kerrie.

Regards,

Thomas Burmester
Office Manager

In that case I would like to apologise to Mr. Semple for any offence my comments may have caused. I suppose some people do sound a bit wooden (for lack of a better description) when reading for radio, and I appreciate Mr. Burmester’s prompt and candid response.

End Update

Further Update: Ms. Tucker’s office won’t confirm it, but the RiotACT administrators have. The copied answer was a mistake at RiotACT’s end. I apologise to Ms. Tucker for any offence caused.

Sadly one of her campaign managers, a certain Ms. Margo Kingston, has managed to convince me that there is no point in voting for the Greens with her ranting in the comments of the previously linked RiotACT article. End Update

Samuel

8 comments November 19th, 2007 at 11:05am

Fire at Olims Hotel

There has been a fire at Olims Hotel in Braddon this evening. The fire broke out in the kitchen of the hotel at around 7pm.

The fire brigade have put out the fire and multiple emergency services are on the scene.

More information as it comes to hand.

Update 8:19pm: It would appear that the fire actually started in one of the external kitchen ventilation units and not in the kitchen itself:

The scene of the fire from the Batman Street service entrance.

The burnt out kitchen ventilation unit.

The fire appears to have caused minimal damage, with staff reporting that there was more smoke than actual fire.

Approximately 50 people were evacuated during the incident, and the hotel appears to be back to normal operation following the fire.

Fire brigade officials remain on the scene with ActewAGL and hotel maintenance staff to investigate the fire.

A fire brigade breathing apparatus unit outside Olims Hotel.

End Update

Samuel

1 comment November 12th, 2007 at 07:47pm

Rather Heavy Rain

If you thought the rain over Canberra and surrounds in the last little while was quite heavy and an awful lot of rain…well, you’d be correct.

(Click image to enlarge).

Nattie and I were having one of our walks when the heavy rain hit rather suddenly after we had been enjoying a bit of light rain. We’re both a bit wet, but it was certainly an interesting bit of rain and storm activity. We found some cover a short distance from home for the majority of the really heavy rain, and then made a run for it when the rain eased off a bit (and one of the nearby trees started to look a bit unstable, to the best of my knowledge it is still standing minus a branch or two, but we would have had to wait another ten to fifteen minutes if we hadn’t made a move at that time).

Update: The weather radar also indicates that inland Australia is getting a decent share of the rain…of course it needs more, but it’s a good start, especially when you consider that much of New South Wales is not covered by a weather radar (see http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/radar/ is you don’t believe me).

(Click image to enlarge).
End Update

Samuel

2 comments November 3rd, 2007 at 07:50pm

Happy 32nd Birthday 2CC

I completely forgot that today, being the 31st of October, is 2CC’s birthday…whilst I probably should find something new to celebrate their birthday with next year, for now feel free to enjoy one of their old jingles from a time when they were a music station.

[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/2ccmusicradio.mp3]
Download link

Samuel

2 comments October 31st, 2007 at 07:23pm

Storm Warning

The storm warning has now expired.

Update 12:20am 29/10/2007:
The bureau of meteorology have updated their previous storm warning, and have increased the warning area in the process. It looks like Canberra has been spared the brunt of the storms so far, but the weather radar shows more on the way. Hopefully the warning is a mere formality, and the storms don’t cause any damage.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for DAMAGING WIND and LARGE HAILSTONES
For people in the SOUTH COAST, SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, ACT, SOUTH WEST SLOPES and parts of the ILLAWARRA, CENTRAL TABLELANDS, CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS, RIVERINA and LOWER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 11:38 pm Sunday, 28 October 2007.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Nowra, Batemans Bay, Orange, Canberra, Goulburn, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga and Albury.

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
* Move your car under cover or away from trees.
* Secure or put away loose items around your house, yard and balcony.
* Keep clear of fallen power lines.
* Unplug computers and appliances.
* Avoid using the phone during the storm.
* Stay indoors away from windows, and keep children and pets indoors as well.
* For emergency help in floods and storms, ring the SES (NSW and ACT) on 132 500.

The next warning is due to be issued by 2:40 am Monday.

End Update

Story originally posted at 8:45pm, Sunday October 28, 2007 follows:
A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for the ACT and a number of other regions:

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for DAMAGING WIND and LARGE HAILSTONES
For people in the SOUTHERN TABLELANDS, ACT, SOUTH WEST SLOPES and parts of the CENTRAL TABLELANDS, CENTRAL WEST SLOPES, CENTRAL WEST PLAINS, RIVERINA and LOWER WESTERN Forecast Districts.

Issued at 8:32 pm Sunday, 28 October 2007.

Severe thunderstorms may produce damaging winds and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Canberra, Yass, Parkes, Wagga Wagga, Albury and Griffith.

The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
* Move your car under cover or away from trees.
* Secure or put away loose items around your house, yard and balcony.
* Keep clear of fallen power lines.
* Unplug computers and appliances.
* Avoid using the phone during the storm.
* Stay indoors away from windows, and keep children and pets indoors as well.
* For emergency help in floods and storms, ring the SES (NSW and ACT) on 132 500.

The next warning is due to be issued by 11:35 pm.

From Reid I can see and hear a large amount of storm activity, and the weather radar shows a fairly large area of rain about to sweep across the ACT.

There is also a more potent storm cell behind it…although if the next one is more potent than this one, then that is a concern.

Samuel

2 comments October 29th, 2007 at 12:20am

Vodafone’s Reid Cell Out Of Action

I just noticed that my mobile phone is barely getting a signal. Usually at home it gets a signal from Vodafone’s “Reid” tower (although I have no idea where that transmitter is based as I certainly haven’t seen it), and at the moment it is getting its signal from the Campbell tower.

Update 3pm: It’s back on the air now.

Samuel

1 comment October 20th, 2007 at 02:00pm

It’s Official!

Yes, as I announced on 2CC’s drive show earlier this afternoon, I will be running as an independent for the seat of Fraser in the upcoming federal election.

More details shortly when I have a spare moment to outline some of my policies. (Or perhaps get the interview audio online…it has a couple).

The one thing I really need to make this happen is 50 people enrolled to vote in the seat of Fraser who would be willing to sign a form from the Australian Electoral Commission nominating me as a candidate. There is no fee, and you don’t even have to vote for me, all I am asking is that you sign a bit of paper to allow me to run for election. If you would be willing to help out with this, feel free to send me an email.

I’m holding off an a proper media release for now until I have a couple more details, and work out whether or not it will need an “authorised by” line on it.

Samuel

3 comments September 21st, 2007 at 05:15pm

Canberra Radio Ratings #2 for 2007

Late last week Nielsen Media Research released the results of the second survey of radio listeners in Canberra for 2007. For the last few ratings I haven’t managed to produce a statistical analysis of the ratings due to the amount of time it takes, however this time I have gone to the effort of putting all the ratings results since 2005 in to a spreadsheet, this not only allows me to automate the calculations required for the analysis, but also allows me to create graphs. As such, you can expect much more interesting ratings results from me from now on.

So, without further ado, the ratings.

666 ABC Canberra have clearly cemented themselves at the top of the ratings (congratulations to them…but I really can’t understand why…if the audience want to listen to the ABC, Radio National is much better, and if they’re not fussed about whether the station they are listening to is an ABC one or not then 2CC is the best talk radio station in Canberra in my opinion), 2CA are making an impressive comeback, and ABC Classic FM are losing ground quickly. 2CC have now lost ground for two consecutive surveys (although I have been informed that Mike Frame’s weekend programs are rating between 14% and 16% in their timeslots, and are the highest rating programs of any 2CC presenter, local or otherwise). FM 104.7 did much better than their sister station Mix 106.3, and JJJ continue to gain.

It is quite interesting to see how the leaderboard has changed over time (Excel refused to reduce the Y axis range to “1 to 10”).

I think it is quite interesting to see the segmentation of the market between the talk and music stations, and how it changes over time.

There are five music stations and four talk stations in Canberra, so it is also interesting to see the average rating of each station in each category.

ABC and Commercial audiences.

There are five ABC stations and four commercial stations…therefore the averages of the stations in each category.

And probably my favourite category comparison…the battle of the bands.

FM might still be winning, but this is the second consecutive gain for AM!

The averages based on four AM stations and five FM stations.

So far the date for the first survey of 2008 has not been announced.

4 comments September 19th, 2007 at 06:30am

WIN News Pushed Back to 6:30

WIN Television in Canberra have made a strange decision tonight to swap the broadcast times of their two news bulletins. Instead of having WIN local news at 6pm and Nine News from Sydney at 6:30, they are running Nine News at 6pm and WIN News at 6:30.

Apparently this is so that Canberrans can get all the APEC news half an hour earlier than they otherwise would have, although if that is the case, I can’t understand why they didn’t make the decision yesterday.

I think WIN have made a mistake with this decision, as I think a lot of people would have tuned out when they discovered Nine News in the place of the local bulletin. Many people may have come to the false conclusion that WIN have dumped local news, something the other commercial stations in Canberra did a few years ago.

Samuel

2 comments September 6th, 2007 at 06:30pm

Mount Majura

On Thursday afternoon I went for a walk up Mount Majura.

Mount Majura is a relatively steep mountain behind Mount Ainslie, and is slightly taller. The highlight of Mount Majura in my view is the Canberra Airport Radar which sits next to the summit. There is a road to the summit from Majura Road, however it is blocked by a locked fence near the bottom.

I started my walk from the Mount Majura Nature Reserve entrance on Antill Street. The full set of photos is available on the photo gallery at http://photos.samuelgordonstewart.com/Mt-Majura-20070830 and I have included a few highlights below.

Samuel

3 comments September 3rd, 2007 at 10:09am

Inner North Blackout For 40 Minutes

The suburbs of Reid, Ainslie, Braddon and some of Civic suffered a power failure from about 11:50am to 12:30pm today. Traffic lights on Ballumbir Street were also affected.

I spoke to a representative from ActewAGL about the blackout. He said that it was a “general blackout” but would not comment on the cause. I, sadly, was not in the affected area at the time, which was a pity as it was one of the few newsworthy things to happen around here for a while (and I haven’t been involved in a decent blackout for a while).

Samuel

4 comments August 30th, 2007 at 01:57pm

Lunar Eclipse Photos

“Better late than never” is a phrase I use far too often.

I have finally uploaded the photos of the lunar eclipse that I shot from the top of Mount Ainslie. They are available on the photo gallery at http://photos.samuelgordonstewart.com/lunar07

As the shadow of the earth was moving across the moon I took photos every five minutes…unfortunately the moon was too bright (and I don’t have the appropriate filters) to get a decent photo of the moon prior to the eclipse, but I did get some good photos of Canberra while I was on Mount Ainslie.

Some highlights include:

The full set of full size photos are available using the link above.

Samuel

3 comments August 30th, 2007 at 02:14am