Storms - pictorial

But never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm

               Stevie Nicks

Darwin has recently been subject to a period of hot dry weather. We recorded 8 days without rain. This is a little unusual in the middle of a wet season, not out of the ordinary but it had the locals up in arms demanding rain and the cooler weather that it brings. Our local newspaper, The NT News, which on a good day has little to report and generally fills the paper with stories about crocodiles and people catching fish, made a meal of this with headlines such as "It Might Rain".
I made the most of the time, photographically, as we get some spectacular sunsets with the sun setting directly over the ocean and often with monsoonal cloud formations.

Sunset looking West from Fanny Bay

But eventually a "monsoonal system" moved in to the top end. Don't ask me what a monsoonal system is, the person on the weather report drops that phrase like he is dropping litter along the Arnhem Highway. (There is a lot of litter along that stretch of road).
The monsoonal system brought rain and strong winds. This brought a week of light rain culminating in a torrential downpour of 177mm on 25th January.
Along with the wind came some storm driven swells that turned our normally placid ocean into pounding surf.

Nightcliff Jetty - closed due to the conditions.

Storm Waves

Risking a dumping

Now I know that many readers, both of you, can probably show pictures of bigger waves, but it is all relative, normally this is as flat and calm as a mill pond. It is all relative.

As a final point, all outdoor celebrations for Australia Day (26 Jan) have been cancelled due to our inclement weather.
The Bludger is keeping dry inside.