Learn about the Demons of the Coast – East Coast Lows

ABCA is delighted to announce the Guest Speaker at our 9 November community meeting - Meteorologist Richard Whitaker will share his fascination with the weather systems known as East Coast Lows.

Periodic visitations of violent weather are a feature of life on the Central coast, including Avoca, and although infrequent have produced famous storms well known to local residents. These are called East Coast Lows (ECLs) and have produced shipwreck, floods, storm force winds, massive oceanic swells and coastal erosion.

ECLs are intense low-pressure cells that can spin up rapidly, often just off the coast, with little warning and they remain a significant challenge to even modern-day meteorologists.

In this talk we will look at when they are most likely to develop, the causes behind them, the extreme weather that sometimes follows and how the predictions of their development have improved over the last three decades or so.  

We will also look at some of the infamous ECLs of the past including the wreck of the Dunbar, (20th August 1857), the Cawarra Storm (12th July 1866), the Maitland Storm (5th May 1898), the Sygna Storm (25/26th May 1974) and the Pasha Bulker Storm (8th June 2007).

About the Speaker

Richard (Dick) Whitaker is a scientist, meteorologist, author and lecturer with a lifelong passion for weather and history.

After serving in the Australian Army, he spent thirty-one years with the Bureau of Meteorology and later became Chief Meteorologist with the Weather Channel and Sky News Weather. He has been author, co-author and consultant editor of seventeen books about the weather, and remains an active public speaker.

Richard will be speaking at the ABCA Community Meeting on Monday 9 November, 7 pm Rugby Club, Heazlett Park, Avoca Beach.