Weather East Coast Lows strike

摘要

Late April witnessed two East Coast Lows in a week that caused havoc in South East Queensland and along much of the NSW coast from the Illawarra up to the Queensland border. These were followed two weeks later by a significant rain event in Wellington, the New Zealand capital, on 14 May. There was also a minor wind event in Auckland. The Bureau of Meteorology defines an ECL as an intense low-pressure systems which occur on average several times each year off the eastern coast of Australia, in particular southern Queensland, NSW and eastern Victoria. Although they can occur at any time of the year, they are more common during autumn and winter with a maximum frequency in June. East Coast Lows will often intensify rapidly overnight making them one of the more dangerous weather systems to affect the NSW coast. East Coast Lows are also observed off the coast of Africa and the Americas and are sometimes known as east coast cyclones.