NSW: Weather bureau admits failure to issue storm warning

AAP General News (Australia)
04-15-1999
NSW: Weather bureau admits failure to issue storm warning

SYDNEY, April 15 AAP - The weather bureau said today it was unfortunate it had failed to
issue a warning about the massive hailstorm which lashed Sydney last night.

The storm is believed to have caused more than $100 million damage and claimed the life of
a 45-year-old Guildford fisherman struck by lightning.

The bureau's NSW regional director, Patrick Sullivan, said the failure to issue a warning
was "unfortunate" but also that it had to be remembered meteorology was an inexact science.

He said the storm was initially tracked on radar south of Wollongong, moving north just
offshore.

The bureau had expected it to move further offshore as it travelled north, with the duty
forecaster judged it would be far enough out to sea to miss residential Sydney.

"I completely understand the community response for not having been warned," Mr Sullivan
told AAP.

"But all I can say to that is that meteorology is not a perfect science and our predictions
are not always as accurate as we wish them to be."

He said the bureau would look into its handling of the storm for future reference.

Federal Environment Minister Robert Hill said he would wait for the bureau's official
report before commenting on the lack of a warning last night.

"No doubt I'll get a response, the technology is very good these days ... the computer
models are fantastic but they just can't predict every uncertainty," Senator Hill told
journalists here.

"Occasionally these storms change direction, build up their intensity much greater than the
computer models and all the specialist forecasts.

"That's not prejudging because I haven't yet had a report from the bureau.

"I'd expect to get that and hear their point of view before I would deem to cast any
judgment on the matter."

The bureau said the storm was the most severe in Sydney since the city's north shore was
hit by a particularly powerful thunderstorm in January 1991.

AAP jo/tsm/bm

KEYWORD: HAILSTORM BUREAU

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