Thunderstorms with lightning, thunder and rain that rocked Armidale on Wednesday and Thursday, January 8-9 brought good news - and bad news for the start of 2020.
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While rain provided a spiritual lift, a lightning strike has damaged pumping equipment, causing a loss of water pressures to some homes in the city's north.
Some tanks and a dams did fill a little and a few streams ran from the two afternoons of showers, and another two afternoons of the same are predicted.
"Ten kilometres north east of Uralla, 53mls filled all the dams, washed some fences away, but good to have the dams full," one person posted on Facebook.
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At at the storm's height, Armidale Regional Council's northern water reservoir was struck by lightning and pumping equipment was severely damaged.
Armidale Regional Council Mayor Simon Murray said the strike must have been very close to the reservoir.
"It took out the control boards that operate three parts that operate the three pumps. Repairs will take about one week " he said.
"A lot of the town can be supplied by gravity feed from those towers. So, really the issue is those residents that are in those higher elevations.
"Council is having a staff member manually controlling one pump. The pump will run between 6am and 10.30pm to restore water pressure to normal, but outside of those hours water pressure will be low to zero."
He said residents in northern Armidale, Foothills Estate and Link Road could have low pressure or no water at all.
RAINFALL ROUNDUP
The Bureau of Meteorolgy reported 22mls of rain for Tenterfield, 20mls in Glen Innes and 17mls for Guyra.
Armidale Express Facebook followers who took readings came up with different figures however. They recorded 32mls in Guyra and also 30 kilometres to the east of town with 30mls falling at Tilbuster. Wollomombi Village received 31mls.
To the west of Guyra, 35mml fell on "Westlynne" at Baldersleigh, but two kilomtres further along the road a property received 55mls. A reading of 30mls came in from Saumarez Ponds.
Our Facebook reports for Armidale, however, were generally between the 33mls recorded by BoM at the Armidale Airport and its 22mls at the nursery station, that said, there were several higher totals.
Invergowrie readers reported 18-20mls on Thursday with one recording 38mls the day before.
South Invergowrie captured 53.5mls for the previous 48 hrs and Arding, opposite the CSRIO, received 22mls.
On the other side of the New England Highway, Kellys Plains recorded 37mls while further south, 19mls fell near Dangarsleigh and 17mls in the Castledoyle area.
Nicole Bourke reported "absolutely bugger all" rain at Lower Creek on Thursday evening. On Friday she said water had run down from Armidale to bring the river up.
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