Page:Types of Australian weather.djvu/27

Rh wrecks on this coast. For the most part these gales appear to be partially spent cyclones, which come in from north-east or east, and travel down the coast until they begin to recurve to the eastward.

The warning of their coming is usually very short; it consists of a sudden increase in the sea on some northern part of the coast with wind from east to south, and falling barometers, while the high pressure over Victoria and South Australia becomes intensified and progresses into the Tasman Sea. The south-east circulation about this anticyclone increases in force with the increasing barometric grade, and also by the wind circulation about the cyclone, and the effect of the two causes acting together is to produce a most serious gale. Rarely, these storms originate in a monsoonal depression somewhere over South Australia, which travelling eastward intensifies on the east coast. Heavy rain is a marked feature of these storms, but it is confined to the coast, and rarely if ever extends inland.

The storm selected to illustrate this type was a very severe one, and began on September 23rd, 1892, about 6 p.m. The barometric conditions antecedent to it are shown in Chart 25; the main