What's the most tropical place?

[Miccles]

Ari, I'd agree. Haven't been to Bogor (or Indonesia even) but because it's a collection of thousands of islands spread across the equator the situation is ideal. In Africa and the Americas the equator sits over continental land masses which can cause lower humidity and increased temperature fluctuations. Darwin has a large continental land mass to the south where the dry season winds come from. Hence the greater fluctuations in humidity and temperature.

In that argument, why is FNQ wet tropics?? I guess because Darwin is straight bang in the middle of the Top End? Not trying to argue.... just want to know...

Regards, Ari

That's a great question Ari - and one I'd like an answer to as well. Maybe Cairns etc gets the wet air from the pacific that you guys don't get. It's the only thing I can think of. Cairns really is one of the premier palm growing areas in the world.

Regards

Michael

[Miccles]

And yes - Bogor is also a sensational place. I need to go back there. I will be going to Manila in the next month or so as well, and would love to see some of the gardens there too.

Regards

Michael.

Edited April 19, 2010 by Miccles

[ariscott]

You have to go to private garden there, Michael.... I don't think Manila has botanical garden . BTW, you should've joined us in Bogor!!! You would've had fun!!!!!

The problem with Cairns is that.... it is in Queensland.... LOL (sorry... can't resist).

Regards, Ari

[aussiearoids]

[quote name='ariscott' date='19 April 2010 - 07:30 AM' timestamp='1271625869' post='384652'

In that argument, why is FNQ wet tropics?? I guess because Darwin is straight bang in the middle of the Top End? Not trying to argue.... just want to know...

Regards, Ari

Edited April 19, 2010 by aussiearoids

[tropicbreeze]

The prevailing winds are south easters in the dry season. For North Queensland that means they come in off the sea, for Darwin they come in over land. This air is coming up from southern regions and is cold so it can't hold a lot of moisture. Coming through the interior it warms a lot but has no extra moisture to absorb. Even with the same amount of water content, at the higher temperatures the relative humidity drops a lot. Dry air both heats and cools faster than humid air. This exacerbates the situation in that the more it warms the lower the relative humidity gets. The lower the relative humidity the more it will warm. So the air reaching Darwin from the south east is very warm and has low relative humidity during the day. At night the low humidity air cools quicker which in turn means relative humidity rises. That's why we have fairly high humidity over night. Now and then we'll have air move in from the north east which gives us those periods of high day time humidity during the dry season.

Another factor is that North Queensland has relatively high mountains in from the coast. Humid air moving in from the sea is forced up into cooler altitudes which causes precipitation. Around Darwin there's no significantly high mountains. The Kimberley (in WA) does have higher mountains near the coast but like Darwin, the air coming in from the south east is too dry.

[ariscott]

Thanks... Zig.. It is interesting how different climate is from one place to the other... Coming from equatorial tropics, it is amazing how a few 100kms really makes a difference.

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

The prevailing winds are south easters in the dry season. For North Queensland that means they come in off the sea, for Darwin they come in over land. This air is coming up from southern regions and is cold so it can't hold a lot of moisture. Coming through the interior it warms a lot but has no extra moisture to absorb. Even with the same amount of water content, at the higher temperatures the relative humidity drops a lot. Dry air both heats and cools faster than humid air. This exacerbates the situation in that the more it warms the lower the relative humidity gets. The lower the relative humidity the more it will warm. So the air reaching Darwin from the south east is very warm and has low relative humidity during the day. At night the low humidity air cools quicker which in turn means relative humidity rises. That's why we have fairly high humidity over night. Now and then we'll have air move in from the north east which gives us those periods of high day time humidity during the dry season.

Another factor is that North Queensland has relatively high mountains in from the coast. Humid air moving in from the sea is forced up into cooler altitudes which causes precipitation. Around Darwin there's no significantly high mountains. The Kimberley (in WA) does have higher mountains near the coast but like Darwin, the air coming in from the south east is too dry.

Yes, if we could reverse the earths direction of rotation, the prevailing winds would come from the SW and the Kimberleys would turn into the new Daintree and get the same climate as FNQ. Poor Cairns would turn into Derby, and Townsville into the Great Sandy Desert. Rockhampton would average 38C for 3 months in summer and Port Macquarie would turn into Perth and have winter rainfall and summer drought. I'm glad Doctor Evil was only a character in Austin Powers films, because if it was possible, some bunch of crazies would love to try it.

Best regards

Tyrone

[ariscott]

and Darwin will still be the old Darwin

[tropicbreeze]

Darwin would actually bcome the new Gove (Nhulunbuy) and Gove would become the new Darwin.

[peachy]

I have actually been to Gove !! Nice prawns, vile place !!

[ariscott]

Hey... I lived in Gove for 2 years, peachy... I actually loved the place... pity about the mine . We probably would still be there, if work was good... Gove is pretty once you get out of town. Ella loved it and I had the best friends there...

Regards, Ari

[Mike in Nelson]

Most of you are talking about equatorial weather. I agree that one should indicate what he means by tropical. Desert? Rainforest? Savana?

Jason

I agree. How does the climate of Singapore compare with that of Congo for example? Both the same latitude but different geography.

[amazondk]

I believe that if the latitude and altitude and percipication are similar the climates would be similar just like here and Singapore. The only difference as stated earlier is that we have a more pronounced dry season here.

dk

[Mike in Nelson]

The prevailing winds are south easters in the dry season. For North Queensland that means they come in off the sea, for Darwin they come in over land. This air is coming up from southern regions and is cold so it can't hold a lot of moisture. Coming through the interior it warms a lot but has no extra moisture to absorb. Even with the same amount of water content, at the higher temperatures the relative humidity drops a lot. Dry air both heats and cools faster than humid air. This exacerbates the situation in that the more it warms the lower the relative humidity gets. The lower the relative humidity the more it will warm. So the air reaching Darwin from the south east is very warm and has low relative humidity during the day. At night the low humidity air cools quicker which in turn means relative humidity rises. That's why we have fairly high humidity over night. Now and then we'll have air move in from the north east which gives us those periods of high day time humidity during the dry season.

Another factor is that North Queensland has relatively high mountains in from the coast. Humid air moving in from the sea is forced up into cooler altitudes which causes precipitation. Around Darwin there's no significantly high mountains. The Kimberley (in WA) does have higher mountains near the coast but like Darwin, the air coming in from the south east is too dry.

FNQ is also on narrow strip of land with sea either side. Different dynamics than Darwin I assume.

[tropicbreeze]

Mike, you obviously mean Cape York Peninsula. In fact the wettest part of Queensland is outside of the Peninsula. It's southern boundary isn't very obvious but is usually taken as being Lat. 16 South. That puts it roughly over Daintree, which is at the northern end of the Wet Tropics. The average rainfall overall for Cape York Peninsula is around 1700 mm, which is about the same as for Darwin Airport. Along the east coast it tends to be higher. Along the west coast, especially further south, it gets much lower. The same with the interior. The northern tip of the Cape is only slightly more than Darwin.

As far as peninsulas go, the Top End of the Northern Territory can also be described as that. It has west, north and east coasts. Only it's about as wide as the base of Cape York Peninsula, shorter, and doesn't narrow down.

[Wai`anae Steve]

In certain areas 5 degrees north or south of the equator, they have a tropical rainforest climate, where every day is hot and rainy. No dry season and no spring fall or winter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_rainforest_climate

dont for get the humidity!!

[Wai`anae Steve]

Bangkok, Thailand

You might get caught in a civil war there :-)

[amazondk]

There are a lot of most tropical places as stated earlier. I live in one of them. Yesterday afternoon I happened to be down at one of the small riverside ports and took some pictures. Tropical is a way of life and when you look at the scenes attached they are very tropical. People dress and act in relation to the climate. The last picture of the corner bar is typical tropical Manaus. Standing on the street, drinking a beer, talking about whatever, with clothing for the tropics.

Just some scenes from just another very tropical place.

dk