Australian Weather Calendar 2010

Australian Weather Calendar 2010


Rain falls at sunset on Paroo Station, Meekatharra, Western Australia, 1 April 2007, 6.15pm Louise Ford is a keen photographer and pastoralist on Paroo Station, near Meekatharra, central Western Australia, where she and husband Jim run 1000 cattle on 200,000 hectares. The thunderstorm that contributed useful rain to their property in April 2007 — “we usually need a good, soaking rain,” she says — excited Louise. She rushed to the back of the homestead and photographed the storm as the sun set
Picture: LOUISE FORD

Lightning over Moana Beach, south of Adelaide, 6 December 2005, 1.14am
John McDermott, an opal miner, artist and keen photographer, was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. In December 2005, in the middle of the night, John was standing knee-deep in the shallows at Moana Beach, south of Adelaide, photographing lightning and its reflection in the water. “Suddenly I felt an electric charge in my hair,” he recalls, “and the tripod was resonating with a bit of a hum like a transformer.” He quickly splashed to dry land, and now vows: “I’ll only do that once!” Picture: JOHN MCDERMOTT

A thunderstorm front approaches New Brighton Beach, 30 December 2008, 4.03pm
Kathryn Lynch’s family knows she will drop everything and be out the door with her camera when dramatic weather looms. Kathryn was holidaying near Byron Bay in December 2008, when conditions became very hot and still mid-afternoon. “Then a terrific wind whipped things along the beach as the tail-end of the storm came over,” she says. “I kept on shooting, shielding the camera between shots; and the cricketers also played on.” Picture: KATHRYN LYNCH

Irisation amid cumulus cloud at Katherine Gorge, 2 December 2005, 3.30pm
Enthusiastic photographer Peter Ostry frequently visits friends in the Northern Territory and particularly enjoys photographing the territory’s famous thunderstorms. But one tranquil afternoon in December 2005 he was “doing the tourist river cruise” on the Katherine Gorge when his niece spotted rainbow-like colours amid the clouds. Peter reached for his camera and captured an unusually bright cloud iridescence. “It was a spectacular hour-long display of intense colour during the build-up to the Wet season,” he recalls Picture: PETER OSTRY

A rainbow over Victoria Dock and Sullivan’s Cove, Hobart, 23 February 2008, 4.55pm
Web designer Jamie Scuglia enjoys his holidays around Australia, camera always on standby. In February 2008, Jamie was ensconced in a Hobart hotel and by late afternoon was glum about the less-than-summery water view. But the room turned out to be the right place at the right time as the sun came out during a rain shower and fashioned a rainbow over Victoria Dock and Sullivan’s Cove alongside the Derwent River Picture: JAMIE SCUGLIA

Sun shines through dense smoke over Mt Lindsay, Western Australia, April 2004
Kade Bouwman always keeps his camera nearby when he operates earthmoving equipment around Denmark, near Albany, in southwest Western Australia. His enthusiasm paid off in April 2004 when he watched helicopters drop a ring of fire bombs into forest near Mt Lindsay for a fuel reduction burn. “Soon there was a circle of fire — and whoof, suddenly the updraught drew flames into the middle, and up she went, spectacularly but briefly" Picture: KADE BOUWMAN

Clouds over Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, as seen from Arthurs Seat, 2.30pm, August 2007. Some pictures simply demand to be taken, says Ben Albrecht, owner of a jewellery gallery in Melbourne. Ben had just enjoyed lunch with his wife’s family at a Mornington Peninsula vineyard when they stopped at Arthurs Seat. “It was an amazing day (in August 2007), blue as blue, with two cloud layers,” Ben recalls. “So still, with only one boat visible” Picture: BEN ALBRECHT

Clouds over Clonbinane, central Victoria, 7 November 2007, 6.25pm
Educational consultant Ross Kimber is a keen photographer and takes his camera everywhere. He was returning to Melbourne on the Hume Freeway in November 2007 when he spotted a storm near Clonbinane as the sun was setting. “I loved the light on the paddocks; the impending drama,” he recalls
Find out more about the 2010 Australian Weather Calendar here. Take a look at last year's pictures here Picture: ROSS KIMBER

2009 Australian Weather Calendar


The Bureau of Meteorology in Australia runs a photographic competition each year. The winning pictures go into a calendar, alongside their stories. Retired Bureau of Meteorology officer Ken Hayes travelled to the Perry Sandhills in New South Wales, in 2007. He was impressed by sand dunes rising 30 metres above the otherwise flat landscape. Ken says. “In the late afternoon, high-level cirrus in the west hinted at a really nice sunset, so I walked around for an hour to pick the right spot”
Picture: KEN HAYES