November 2014 was a month of some spectacular weather in South East Queensland and North East New South Wales. Here’s some of the highlights of the last month of spring this year.

November Records Broken

Temperature records tumbled across the South East on the G20 Weekend. Temperatures reached a top of 38.9C in the city on Sunday 16th of November, the highest temperature since the new Brisbane weather station was established in 1999.

The heat wave hit the western suburbs and Ipswich earlier on Saturday the 15th, with a new record temperature of 43.0C at Amberley.

The record at Maroochydore Airport was smashed by 3.5 degrees with a new record of 41.0C on Sunday 16th.

Spectacular Isolated Storms

The month gave us some spectacular isolated storms to the west of Brisbane on the Darling Downs and in the Lockyer Valley. While many of these storms were weak and short lived they were spectacular at the same time with clear updrafts and mushroom like anvils.

Warwick cell as seen on 11/11/2014 at 1:26PM – Image courtesy Australian Weathercam Network

Mammatus formation on the Gold Coast on 6/11/2014

Flash Flooding One Week, Flash Flooding and Massive Hail the Next

On Wednesday 19th of November a storm formed on the border ranges and moved through the southern suburbs of Brisbane, the CBD and onwards to the northern suburbs and Redcliffe. It dumped 40-50mm on a space of just 20 minutes along a path from Archerfield to Fortitude Valley. In the valley it completely inundated streets and the train lines at Fortitude Valley train station. Winds reached 106km/h at Redcliffe.

Jacqui Kinzett took this panorama at Deagon

Just over a week later on Thursday 27th of November another storm formed on the border ranges following a similar track as the 19th of November storm. This storm became a powerful supercell that produced a microburst with winds greater than 140km/h at Archerfield, flipping aircraft and ripping up roofs. It also dumped hail as large as 7cm over a vast area of the city damaging roofs and cars. Already insurance claims have reach $201 million.

Overall

All in all it was a spectacular last month of spring for Brisbane and South East Queensland. What it lacked in numbers of storm days it made up with amazing weather events.