Precipitation over the Australian Alps (AA) constitute an important source of water to south-eastern Australia, supplying fresh water for agriculture, industry, and domestic use particularly on the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. In addition, Snowy Hydro LTD actively redistributes water towards the Murray basin that would otherwise flow into the Tasmanian Sea through the Snowy River. This water management greatly benefits from accurate prediction of precipitation both spatially and temporally wise.

The current precipitation estimates available for this region have been shown to have worrisome biases, with underestimation of precipitation more pronounced along the windward slopes. We have conducted an intense observational campaign in the AA during the winter months (July-August) of 2018, which has provided us with novel measurements that allows us to elucidate the specific dynamical and microphysical processes that produce precipitation over these mountains.

This presentation specifically focuses on the events that exhibited the highest precipitation rates of the campaign. During the campaign we observed 12 precipitation events, the most intense events are presented, describing the microphysical processes, stability conditions, and synoptic regimes associated with each of these events.