Sunday, December 22, 2024

Storms dump downpours in parts of SA as SES kept busy by minor flooding

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South Australia’s State Emergency Service has received dozens of calls for assistance amid inundating rain across parts of Adelaide, including the southern suburbs, where a patch of road was partially submerged amid the downpour.

A rainband dumped falls of between 10 and 20 millimetres in the Adelaide Hills, the weather bureau said, with Parawa on the Fleurieu Peninsula recording 28 millimetres between midnight and 4pm, and Mount Lofty recording 24 millimetres.

Despite intermittent rain in the last fortnight, parts of Adelaide remain largely parched after a very dry start to the year.

The bureau said the band moved across Adelaide overnight, before another burst during the day, which also moved over the state’s Riverland and south-east.

“We had some showers and thunderstorms trigger again from about late morning through the afternoon,” bureau forecaster Mark Anolak told ABC Radio Adelaide.

“We had a couple of very heavy showers and a couple of thunderstorms that produced some very heavy rainfall rates at one stage.”

State duty officer Craig Brassington said the State Emergency Services had responded to about 60 requests for assistance, mostly in the south “around the Morphett Vale area, which copped a lot of it early this afternoon”.

Videos posted on social media have showed minor flooding, including at Morphett Vale’s so-called “junk food corner”, at the intersection of Pimpala and Main South Roads, where cars sent ripples of water washing onto footpaths.

“The quantity of rain that we had, the downpour — the gutters could not keep up with it and they basically back-filled, and some water did go into houses,” Mr Brassington said.

“There was a lot of water around in a short amount of time this afternoon.

“It sort of came and went just as fast. The water rose pretty quick and then we’ve had a lot of calls come back saying the water’s just dissipated out of the back yards or front yards.”

The bureau said the Adelaide area was in an “easing trend” ahead of the weekend.

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