Winter down under

[Tyrone]

We are at the 192mm mark for August now. We are entering a bit of a drier spell now but the 200mm mark looks doable for August. We have passed 650mm for the year so far which is just below average for this time of the year. Drier sunnier weather is appreciated. If you walk on the lawn you sink in about 4 or 5 cms into the soil beneath. 

[UK_Palms]

2 hours ago, Tyrone said:

We are at the 192mm mark for August now. We are entering a bit of a drier spell now but the 200mm mark looks doable for August. We have passed 650mm for the year so far which is just below average for this time of the year. Drier sunnier weather is appreciated. If you walk on the lawn you sink in about 4 or 5 cms into the soil beneath. 

I know it's a Med climate there (wet winters / dry summers), but I am still surprised how wet it is in your neck of the woods. Even for winter. I have seen some of your flooding pictures and 650mm+ of rainfall means you're looking at 26 inches already for 2020. That seems like an awful lot for only mid August in southeast WA. Has it been unusually wet this winter, or this year in general?

Here, I'm only on 197mm for the entire of 2020 to date so far. Primarily due to the 16mm we got in spring, across 3 months. We did have 24mm fall on Tuesday though, marking my wettest day since February. My 3 wettest months are still yet to come though, in October, November and December. The latter, December, has been especially wet in recent years with flooding like you have experienced (although I have never seen a lawn flood like your's has). I reckon I'll finish the year on around 400mm, assuming December is very wet again. I know London has been as low as 312mm for the year before though.

Any idea what the record high and record low annual rainfall is for Albany, or Millbrook even?

[Tyrone]

1 hour ago, UK_Palms said:

I know it's a Med climate there (wet winters / dry summers), but I am still surprised how wet it is in your neck of the woods. Even for winter. I have seen some of your flooding pictures and 650mm+ of rainfall means you're looking at 26 inches already for 2020. That seems like an awful lot for only mid August in southeast WA. Has it been unusually wet this winter, or this year in general?

Here, I'm only on 197mm for the entire of 2020 to date so far. Primarily due to the 16mm we got in spring, across 3 months. We did have 24mm fall on Tuesday though, marking my wettest day since February. My 3 wettest months are still yet to come though, in October, November and December. The latter, December, has been especially wet in recent years with flooding like you have experienced (although I have never seen a lawn flood like your's has). I reckon I'll finish the year on around 400mm, assuming December is very wet again. I know London has been as low as 312mm for the year before though.

Any idea what the record high and record low annual rainfall is for Albany, or Millbrook even?

August has been wet. The really rainy day this month (81mm) was the wettest August day on record going back to 1877. Its not been the wettest August though. The wettest was around 260mm of rain. We are slightly below average rainfall for this time of the year believe it or not. Average rainfall is 925mm per year,  the driest being 620mm in 2015. The wettest was nearly 1400mm back in the 50's. 2016 was a wet one as well, but it came without frost. It was around 1200mm then. Things flooded similar to this year, but it was more constant the rainfall and it started in May. It wasn't dry then bam, 81mm of rain in a day.

If you go 30 miles west of here to Denmark the average rainfall is about 1m. If you go further west to Pemberton it's about 1200mm, and their wettest year was 1700mm of rain. Nornalup west of Denmark averages around 1200mm of rain annually. If you go east or north of Albany, rainfall drops off quickly. The Stirling Ranges around 50 miles north of me only get in the 450mm zone as does Bremer Bay about 100 miles east of me. Driving from east to west for a few hours takes you from dry scrub and Mallee country near Bremer Bay, to thick damp densely vegetated forests with giant old growth trees, tree ferns and flowing rivers stocked with trout in some cases near Walpole. Two completely different climate zones and vegetation areas along a 300km strip of coastline.

[tropicbreeze]

Here it's dry, dry, dry, and outlook still dry. But, humidity is up (or at least not as low as it's been the past couple of months). Temperature 6AM this morning was 21C, with a forecast of 37C for this afternoon. It looks like the build-up is really on the move.

[greysrigging]

Winter is done and dusted in North Queensland...
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/queensland-locations-break-august-temperature-records-earlier-wet-season-on-the-cards/532355
But not in NSW

 

Edited August 21, 2020 by greysrigging

[greysrigging]

2 hours ago, tropicbreeze said:

Here it's dry, dry, dry, and outlook still dry. But, humidity is up (or at least not as low as it's been the past couple of months). Temperature 6AM this morning was 21C, with a forecast of 37C for this afternoon. It looks like the build-up is really on the move.

A few +38c's out the Douglas-Daly and Bradshaw areas today, and  extensive +37c's in the northern Top End away from the coasts. A pair of 38'7c's at Bradshaw the last coupla days..

[sipalms]

Hard to believe the cold in Canberra and other inland locations, I saw several Queen palms there when visiting once.

[GottmitAlex]

47 minutes ago, sipalms said:

Hard to believe the cold in Canberra and other inland locations, I saw several Queen palms there when visiting once.

6C in Canberra during winter is hard to believe?  

[sandgroper]

7 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

6C in Canberra during winter is hard to believe?  

6c For a maximum is pretty cold, even for Canberra. I remember arriving at dawn in Canberra many years ago, we'd driven up from Adelaide, we pulled up and jumped out, I thought I was going to die! I  still think it's the coldest I've ever felt in my life!

[sipalms]

5 minutes ago, sandgroper said:

6c For a maximum is pretty cold, even for Canberra. I remember arriving at dawn in Canberra many years ago, we'd driven up from Adelaide, we pulled up and jumped out, I thought I was going to die! I  still think it's the coldest I've ever felt in my life!

I was there in June once and man the frost was heavy... Everything was white, hardly ever see that here.

To @GottmitAlex's point above though, I think 6 for a max is pretty low for Canberra...

[greysrigging]

4 minutes ago, sipalms said:

I was there in June once and man the frost was heavy... Everything was white, hardly ever see that here.

To @GottmitAlex's point above though, I think 6 for a max is pretty low for Canberra...

Probably one day a year approaches this sort of low... the mid winter average is 11c ( July )
I remember the school holidays in Sept as a kid in the mid '60's and it snowed ( family in a caravan lol )
And the footy games recently with snow falling ( AFL and NRL ).

 

[greysrigging]

10 hours ago, greysrigging said:

Probably one day a year approaches this sort of low... the mid winter average is 11c ( July )
I remember the school holidays in Sept as a kid in the mid '60's and it snowed ( family in a caravan lol )
And the footy games recently with snow falling ( AFL and NRL ).

 

 

[sandgroper]

1 hour ago, greysrigging said:

 

I remember watching this game! It was incredible.

[greysrigging]

Quite a few road closures in the Central Tablelands atm....
 

[greysrigging]

Nothing can say anything more about the year 2020 in Australia than than the images depicted here, taken this year 8 months apart....

[greysrigging]

And, unbelievably given the near record cold and snow in the South East, an AWS at Yampi Sound, a Defence facility up on the Kimberley coast has just set a new all time Australian record maximum temperature for the month of August ( a winter month ) 40.7c ( 105.3f ) today. Quite a few local monthly max temps records for August have been broken in the North this month.

[greysrigging]

The record breaking heatwave in North Western Australia continues with yesterday's new August national heat record broken again today at West Roebuck, an outstanding 41.2c ( 106.2f ) !

And many other stations in the Kimberley, Pilbara, and NT have also broken their August heat records. No end in sight just yet with near record heat forecast between now and the end of the month.
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/record-breaking-heat-in-the-north/532366
 

[Tyrone]

It feels like winter is releasing its grip on us now and spring is around the corner. We’ve had a couple of sunny days and 20C yesterday. The days are lengthening a lot too.

[tropicbreeze]

A warm ending to winter, but unfortunately still the dry season and definitely not the start of the wet season. Yesterday's maximum was 37.2 with relative humidity of 7%.

[sandgroper]

Was warm further north in the state yesterday,  Marble Bar recorded its warmest winters day on record of 39c.

[greysrigging]

2 hours ago, sandgroper said:

Was warm further north in the state yesterday,  Marble Bar recorded its warmest winters day on record of 39c.

The record heat in the North West continues with Marble Bar ( new site ) breaking its August heat record with a 38.9c yesterday. This was the highest max temp in Australia yesterday.....the first of many I would suggest for the up coming season in the notorious Pilbara heat spot.

I tried to check if it was an all time August record with the older Town site, but the BOM no longer prints the records for the site on the Climate Data Online pages....only the monthly averages etc.....and it is a big task to troll through 100 years looking for 'records'.

Whoops.... found it....so appears to be an all site and all time August record....Old Town site formerly 37.2c and the current Town site was 38c......
Records date back to 1901.

[tropicbreeze]

At 5:30am temperature was 20C, forecast maximum for this afternoon is 38C with a continuation of strong winds and extremely low relative humidity. A Catastrophic Fire Weather Warning has been issued for today and many national parks in the area have been closed. The closer we get to the wet season the further away it seems.

 

 

[sandgroper]

Currently 26c where I am at work this arvo, a beautiful winter day. 

[greysrigging]

Cow of a day in the Darwin and Douglas-Daly districts with the fire danger ratings at 'Catastrophic', ,.  extremely low DP's and humidity, near record August heat and strong gusty winds.
36.4c ( 97.5f ) at Darwin Airport and a few degrees hotter out in the rural areas. Probably close to a record August day out at @tropicbreeze place at Noonamah with 37.8c ( 100f ) today at the airstrip and at Humpty Doo.
 

Edited August 27, 2020 by greysrigging
addition to post.

[Tyrone]

Well we had a sunny 21C yesterday. Going for 23C today. A little taste of the spring ahead. Finally the place is starting to dry out a bit. August has made this place wet and muddy.

[tim_brissy_13]

Nearly hit 21C in Melbourne yesterday too (20.7C). But we had horrendous northerlies so id probably rather a cooler, still day. Looks like some warmer weather forecast for us coming up too (17C and sunny today is nice!)

[sandgroper]

8.30am and already 20c where I am at work, a pretty warm end to winter although we are supposed to get a bit of rain and some cooler weather next week for the start of spring.

[greysrigging]

Bad fires out in the rural areas in the last couple of days....Another +35c day at the Airport and gusty south easterlies
Big fire in the Gamba grass near Howard Springs today....

[tropicbreeze]

There's a slight easing of extreme conditions for a few days but then looks like we're back into it again. All the previous talk of an early wet season seems to be evaporating.

[Tyrone]

Had a sunny 26C here yesterday which was warmer than Perth, then the winter weather engine kicked in to gear and we ended up with strong gusty winds and rain last night. Going for 15C today. A mucky day but that 200mm target for August looks doable now.

[greysrigging]

Some big August numbers in the Pilbara today...Port Hedland 39.9c ! And 39.1c at Karratha, a full 3.7c above the previous August record !

Plenty of other record August record heat in the region today including Mardie, Onslow and Roebourne.

Roebourne Airport's 39.5c is also 3.1c above the pre 2020 August record max temp at the site. ( which has been exceeded now on the last 5 consecutive days )

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tyrone]

We passed the 200mm mark for August with 205.6mm. The first day of spring is bleak, wet and very windy with 9.2C just after lunch which was roughly the minimum as well. Real bad weather at its worst on the south coast.

[tropicbreeze]

Winter is officially over but wet season is still officially one month away. Spring is off to a warm sunny start.

[sipalms]

Official Winter Stats for Christchurch are in.

For the below averages, for reasons of fairness and accuracy, I have taken the average from the Airport (further from coast - more extreme warm and cold) and the city (less extreme, closer to the coast, and with urban heat island effect). 

Average Max Temperature	13C / 55F
Average Min Temperature	2C / 36F
Days 15C (59F) and Over	21
Days 20C (68F)and Over	3
Days with Single Digit Highs (below 10C/50F)	13
Hottest Max	23.6C / 74F
Coldest Max	7.2C / 45F
Hottest Min	10.2C / 50F
Coldest Min	-5.2C / 23F (-3C / 27F in city)
Number of frosts	27
Sunshine Hours total for Winter	376
Sunshine Hours June 2nd cloudiest on record!	76
Sunshine Hours July	119
Sunshine Hours August	181

 

[Albey]

On 9/2/2020 at 9:36 AM, sipalms said:

Official Winter Stats for Christchurch are in.

For the below averages, for reasons of fairness and accuracy, I have taken the average from the Airport (further from coast - more extreme warm and cold) and the city (less extreme, closer to the coast, and with urban heat island effect). 

Average Max Temperature	13C / 55F
Average Min Temperature	2C / 36F
Days 15C (59F) and Over	21
Days 20C (68F)and Over	3
Days with Single Digit Highs (below 10C/50F)	13
Hottest Max	23.6C / 74F
Coldest Max	7.2C / 45F
Hottest Min	10.2C / 50F
Coldest Min	-5.2C / 23F (-3C / 27F in city)
Number of frosts	27
Sunshine Hours total for Winter	376
Sunshine Hours June 2nd cloudiest on record!	76
Sunshine Hours July	119
Sunshine Hours August	181

 

Hi Si - To add to your stats - My Winter low this year was -2 ( Cyathea medullaris fully green / All Nikaus fully green )

[Albey]

[Tyrone]

On 9/2/2020 at 5:36 AM, sipalms said:

Official Winter Stats for Christchurch are in.

For the below averages, for reasons of fairness and accuracy, I have taken the average from the Airport (further from coast - more extreme warm and cold) and the city (less extreme, closer to the coast, and with urban heat island effect). 

Average Max Temperature	13C / 55F
Average Min Temperature	2C / 36F
Days 15C (59F) and Over	21
Days 20C (68F)and Over	3
Days with Single Digit Highs (below 10C/50F)	13
Hottest Max	23.6C / 74F
Coldest Max	7.2C / 45F
Hottest Min	10.2C / 50F
Coldest Min	-5.2C / 23F (-3C / 27F in city)
Number of frosts	27
Sunshine Hours total for Winter	376
Sunshine Hours June 2nd cloudiest on record!	76
Sunshine Hours July	119
Sunshine Hours August	181

 

Only had one frost this winter but it was a killer -2.5C. Average min was 8C avg max around 16C

[Tyrone]

By the end of the weekend we could have already have had half of September’s average rainfall of 102mm. It’s beautiful and sunny at the moment with a forecast top of 20C. Tomorrow will be rainy and 20C.

[GottmitAlex]

On 9/4/2020 at 7:07 AM, Tyrone said:

Only had one frost this winter but it was a killer -2.5C. Average min was 8C avg max around 16C

What lowest lows do you usually get in winter?

[Tyrone]

29 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

What lowest lows do you usually get in winter?

Around zero maybe for a very short time and maybe once or twice a winter.