Melbourne Airport Reopens Runway After Bad Weather

8th Jul 2016

On Thursday, bad weather caused several flight delays at the Melbourne Airport, forcing it to close its runway, but the airport is back in business today. That is despite some weather forecasts which said the wild weather could continue through Friday. Fortunately, the weather calmed and the runways were reopened at around 8:00 in the morning.

A spokeswoman for Airservices Australia said on Thursday that the runway was closed due to rain and low cloud in Melbourne. She also said that people would need to check with their airlines for information about possible delays on Friday.

Due to the weather, Qantas Airways could only operate 18 domestic flights per hour, whereas its usual number is at or around 25 flights an hour.

A spokeswoman for Melbourne Airports said about operating a single runway on Thursday:

"Occasionally we might go to single runway operations, which we were on Thursday, but that's a fairly common occurrence."

On Tuesday, more than 20 millimeters of rain fell in Melbourne, marking this day the wettest in the year for the city. The previous record had around 1 millimeter less rain during a 24 hour period. This is the most rain Melbourne had seen since the month of April.

Right now, major flood warnings are in place for several rivers, including Buchan, Mitchel and Snowy, while there is also a minor flood warning in place for the Gippsland Lakes.

Showers are also predicted for Friday and they are will most likely hit in the morning and during the early afternoon.

When it comes to Sydney, residents of the biggest city in Australia should expect showers this Friday as more than 20mm of rain is predicted to fall on their city. The rain will further be "helped" by light wind, with the speed of up to 20 km per hour.

The bad weather is expected to continue on Saturday, but will ease on Sunday. There should be less rain in Melbourne on Saturday, with only light wind. However, the sunny weather will not last long as rain is expected to return on Sunday when up to 8mm could fall. During the morning, wind will go at the speed of 45km an hour.