Prosper in a dynamic world
Search

Severe storms lash mines in the Pilbara

Dangerous thunderstorms developed across northern WA in the early hours of this morning bringing intense rainfall to some mine sites in the region. 

A broad low pressure trough sitting over northern WA was behind the wild storm activity over the weekend and into Monday. 

The infrared satellite images below show the very tall, large and dangerous thunderstorms impacting the region on Monday morning. 

Image: Infrared satellite images, with lightning and radar for the 6 hours leading up to 7am AWST. 

These thunderstorms produced very heavy rainfall which led to the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a warning in the early hours of this morning. 

Paraburdoo in the Pilbara region recorded a whopping 35.4mm in the 30 minutes to 4:49am. 

The image below shows DTN’s flood forecast system for a mine site in the Pilbara region. It shows a red alert (highest alert threshold for client) for intense rainfall with around 130mm expected to fall in the client’s upper catchment on Monday. 

The system uses a combination of observations of Oracle gridded data (from midnight to 7am AWST on Monday morning- before the black line) for the mines catchment and Oracle rainfall forecast for the remainder of Monday (after the black line).  

While severe thunderstorms have eased with much of the activity remaining near the coast at around 7am local Monday morning, thunderstorms with the potential for heavy rainfall are expected to redevelop later on Monday. You can see in the flood risk system above that the client’s catchment has a high risk throughout Monday. 

DTN’s flood risk system equips our clients with detailed situational awareness, as well as the ability to monitor rainfall for any number of geofenced site sections or culverts.  

The system helps prevent stalled production, damage to assets and infrastructure, and water management and supply chain delays with the following; 

  • Advanced geo-fenced technology: the system creates hundreds of virtual weather stations for each chosen catchment, enabling precise forecasts of rainfall intensity and accumulation on site. 
  • Real-time flood risk and alerts: we work with clients to define specific thresholds and alert the business of any potential breach forecast for any section of the mine 
  • Driven by precise high precision modelling: Opticast is DTN’s satellite-derived gridded nowcasting system, forecasting at 1.2km resolution and updating every 5 minutes. 

The flood risk alerts produced by this system can be sent to anyone on site via SMS, email, via the client’s dashboard, or our Weatherguard app. For more information contact us at sales.apac@dtn.com

Thumbnail image Credit:Tyson Mowarin 

Latest news

Satisfy your weather obsession with these news headlines from around the nation, and the world.

Tropical Cyclone Zelia forms near Western Australia – here’s what businesses can expect

A tropical cyclone has formed to the north of WA and is expected to become a severe tropical cyclone before making landfall later this week, potentially impacting mining, port and offshore oil and gas operations in the region. Tropical Cyclone Zelia formed early on Wednesday morning, becoming the 5th system to be named inside Australia’s […]

Severe tropical cyclone threat looms for mining and ports in WA

A severe tropical cyclone could make landfall in northern WA, impacting mining, port and offshore oil and gas operations in the region. At 8am AWST on Tuesday, a tropical low was spinning off the northern coast of WA, roughly 295 km to the northwest of Broome. This developing low pressure system is causing large pulses […]

NEM braces for hottest day in over 5 years

A searing hot airmass across parts of SA may bring one of the hottest days in half a decade, causing energy demand to soar across the state. Temperatures are set to soar into the mid 40s across large areas of SA on Wednesday and high 30s in Vic on Thursday ahead of a low-pressure system […]

Pilbara mining and port operations could be impacted by a cyclone this week

A developing tropical low off Australia’s northwest coast has a high chance of becoming a tropical cyclone by the middle of this week, possibly as early as Tuesday. The animation below shows a large mass of convective clouds to the north of WA on Monday morning, revealing the location of the developing tropical low. Image: […]