Winter down under

[sandgroper]

2 hours ago, Tyrone said:

I just looked at the dfes website. There would be at a guess 30-40 fires across the state at the moment. The idiots are out burning stuff still down here. Total knuckle heads.

Unbelievable, with everything so dry and winds this strong fire should be the last thing being done.

[cbmnz]

The frost on Monday here did zero damage. Uncovered banana leaves are unaffected. Even that pepper plant I mentioned is fine, only one growing bud i.e about 0.5% of the foliage went black. So seems that they can freeze to the point where leaves feel rigid without damage.

The uncovered frond on the bangalow is showing zero damage so far. I keep noticing more bangalow of some decent size doing fine outdoors right in the immediate town, so seems they are quite viable here after all.

Edited June 6, 2019 by cbmnz
add "after all"

[cbmnz]

On 6/4/2019 at 8:35 PM, sandgroper said:

Changing for southern WA by the weekend, looks like we're in for some heavy rain and much colder weather in Perth. Looking forward to seeing some rain but I can live without the cold.

Yeah. Looks like you'll be getting very similar to typical North Is NZ winter weather for a while, lots of showers and temps only low to mid teens.

[Tyrone]

Even though the day was around 19C it was gloomy windy and very dry with smoke everywhere and dew points that sat around -4C. Not nice. Can’t wait for some wet stuff from the sky and cooler very humid conditions more typical of this time of year. 

[Tyrone]

It’s kind of weird in winter to be sitting outside around 8.30pm in a T-shirt and temps just under 20C. That’s more of a summer situation although the humidity in summer is never this low. Quite the opposite in summer.

[sandgroper]

Heavy rain here in Perth overnight and today, temps around 18c. Not sure how much rain we've had but it's been considerable with more to come over the weekend. Very happy to have the rain and it seems to be getting through to the eastern wheatbelt which is great news, I think it has probably come just in the nick of time.

[cbmnz]

Next frost risk for me is this week with lows of 0 and 1C (32-34F) forecast. But this being late June that is nothing much, presume some real frosts will come in July, or maybe last Winter with absolute minimum -2.4C (27.6F) is the new normal. 

 

[Tyrone]

Going to be cold tonight. Clear skies underneath a high pressure cell. Perth 330kms north is forecast to hit 3C, we are forecast to go down to 7C. I predict a 1C minimum tomorrow morning and light frosts in exposed non canopy areas. Come back clouds and rain!.

[tropicbreeze]

Here it's our fire season.

[UK_Palms]

6 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Going to be cold tonight. Clear skies underneath a high pressure cell. Perth 330kms north is forecast to hit 3C, we are forecast to go down to 7C. I predict a 1C minimum tomorrow morning and light frosts in exposed non canopy areas. Come back clouds and rain!.

I'm the exact opposite. I want this cloud and rain to p*ss off now! 

Highs of only 18C here today, and lows of 14C forecast. More heavy rain as well today. Compared to this date last year in 2018, when it was crystal clear skies and the high was 35C and the low was 21C.

Summer has been a joke so far this year.

Edited June 18, 2019 by UK_Palms

[sandgroper]

Cold this morning,  only 5c as I write this at 5.30am. Heading for a top of 19c with clear blue skies.

[cbmnz]

Got down to -1.0C, only 2 hours below freezing,  It does not seem to have bothered anything in the garden at all.

[Tyrone]

Didn’t go down as cold as I thought. Didn’t get below about 6C even with clear skies. Got another cold night then it warms up. 21C on Saturday and thunderstorms too. A tad warm for around winter solstice.

[Tyrone]

3 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

I'm the exact opposite. I want this cloud and rain to p*ss off now! 

Highs of only 18C here today, and lows of 14C forecast. More heavy rain as well today. Compared to this date last year in 2018, when it was crystal clear skies and the high was 35C and the low was 21C.

Summer has been a joke so far this year.

You need the rain though. Take it while it’s there I reckon. Nothing worse than being in a parched landscape.

[sipalms]

5 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

I'm the exact opposite. I want this cloud and rain to p*ss off now! 

Highs of only 18C here today, and lows of 14C forecast. More heavy rain as well today. Compared to this date last year in 2018, when it was crystal clear skies and the high was 35C and the low was 21C.

Summer has been a joke so far this year.

Did I just hear you say you wanted the rain to p*** off??? After all this talk of a 'semi desert' arid climate in your area within the last month or two?? Just kidding. Hope the rain and cool temps keep everything green and well fed and watered.

[sipalms]

I've recorded -3.4 at home in the last couple of weeks. Last night was around the same, with temps around -2 from 4am until dawn. My bouganvillea is now fried but rumour has it these come back again after some pruning. My 3x Queens are laughing at the cold and looking as good as ever although a little more wind beaten after some storms last month.

[greysrigging]

This is a classic Australian poem read by a famous local actor, Jack Thompson..... thought UK Palms would like his one.... haha...

 

[UK_Palms]

16 hours ago, sipalms said:

Did I just hear you say you wanted the rain to p*** off??? After all this talk of a 'semi desert' arid climate in your area within the last month or two?? Just kidding. Hope the rain and cool temps keep everything green and well fed and watered.

You're damn right, I want this rain to do one! It's been raining yet again today as well, all afternoon. 

The reason I was so desperate for rain a few weeks back was because I had only recorded 8 inches of rain during a 12 month period from mid June 2018 - mid June 2019, so we were in desperate need of rain. But low and behold, as soon as our meteorological summer began (June 1st), we have got tons of rain. And all it has done is rain since, with below average temps and above average rainfall. Why couldn't we have this in the spring, as opposed to summer!? That's the part that p*sses me off. 

Anyway, at least the temperature is shooting up over the next few days. Should be 28C by Sunday, according to BBC. Then 29C on Monday and Tuesday, dropping to 27C on Wednesday. That certainly beats the 18C-20C temps we have been getting lately. 

I wouldn't be surprised if July & August are bone dry though to be honest. We'll see.

[sipalms]

1 hour ago, UK_Palms said:

Should be 28C by Sunday, according to BBC. Then 29C on Monday and Tuesday, dropping to 27C on Wednesday.

By the way, which area of UK do I look at for your local forecast on BBC?

And is BBC the best place to look, I never know which is accurate in other countries.  E.g. weather.com vs accuweather.com in the US.

[UK_Palms]

36 minutes ago, sipalms said:

By the way, which area of UK do I look at for your local forecast on BBC?

And is BBC the best place to look, I never know which is accurate in other countries.  E.g. weather.com vs accuweather.com in the US.

Well I primarily use the BBC for UK forecasts as they are pretty much the most accurate you'll find for the UK, except for maybe the Met Office. Any over seas forecasts, I usually reference on wunderground.com

The closest major town to me is Guildford, or Godalming. But I often use London as a reference point for my forecasts during summer. Although I am actually usually 1-2C warmer than London even, on our hottest days. That is because I am at lower elevation and sandwiched between two valleys that act as a heat sink and rain shadows, in the southeast of England. But it's the polar opposite during the winter (excuse the pun), with my location often being 3-4C colder than the coldest nights in London during winter. 

The forecast keeps changing. Earlier they had a high of 29C forecast for Monday & Tuesday, but that has since been downgraded slightly. Either way though, it is going to be warmer than it has been! London still has an overnight low of 20C forecast for Monday and Tuesday!

 

[greysrigging]

Can't complain about this sort of winter forecast ( except maybe how boring the weather is atm.... )

[Tyrone]

1 hour ago, UK_Palms said:

 

The forecast keeps changing. Earlier they had a high of 29C forecast for Monday & Tuesday, but that has since been downgraded slightly. Either way though, it is going to be warmer than it has been! London still has an overnight low of 20C forecast for Monday and Tuesday!

 

Wow. London can experience warmer summer nights than I get even though I’m about 2000 kms closer to the equator. The warmest I’ve recorded is a 19.6C min a few years back.

[UK_Palms]

1 minute ago, Tyrone said:

Wow. London can experience warmer summer nights than I get even though I’m about 2000 kms closer to the equator. The warmest I’ve recorded is a 19.6C min a few years back.

I had an overnight low of 24C in July last year, off the back of a 37C day. And I'm 30 miles southeast of London. Then again, we also had an overnight low of 3C in July a few years back, so it goes both ways... 

[sipalms]

14 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

Wow. London can experience warmer summer nights than I get even though I’m about 2000 kms closer to the equator. The warmest I’ve recorded is a 19.6C min a few years back.

Interesting, record high overnight minimum at Christchurch (from the climate database) is 23 degrees. However I do have photo proof of metservice recording 28.8 degrees at 2am a couple of years back, before a cool change brought things back to a balmy 20. 

[Tyrone]

5 minutes ago, sipalms said:

Interesting, record high overnight minimum at Christchurch (from the climate database) is 23 degrees. However I do have photo proof of metservice recording 28.8 degrees at 2am a couple of years back, before a cool change brought things back to a balmy 20. 

We never really get weather like that. By midnight in summer even if we’ve had a hot day by midnight it’s almost always around 20C or less. That’s why I’m thinking a Juania may  do ok here.

[UK_Palms]

12 hours ago, Tyrone said:

We never really get weather like that. By midnight in summer even if we’ve had a hot day by midnight it’s almost always around 20C or less. That’s why I’m thinking a Juania may  do ok here.

I have just seen a BBC forecast on TV and it’s saying London should hit 32C on Monday & Tuesday now, with overnight lows of 23-24C in places. My record high overnight low is 26C and London’s is 28C, so that will take some beating. I’m expecting an overnight low of 20-21C on Monday & Tuesday. 

I’m thinking the warmer nights (on hot days) is mainly to do with the short, 6 hour nights at this time of year. It’s not dark until 10pm and it’s completely light by 4am right now, at this latitude. I have been hearing the birds wake up at 3am lately. Whereas you guys have an extra 2-3 hours of darkness in mid-summer, right? 

[Exotic Life]

3 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

I have just seen a BBC forecast on TV and it’s saying London should hit 32C on Monday & Tuesday now, with overnight lows of 23-24C in places. My record high overnight low is 26C and London’s is 28C, so that will take some beating. I’m expecting an overnight low of 20-21C on Monday & Tuesday. 

I’m thinking the warmer nights (on hot days) is mainly to do with the short, 6 hour nights at this time of year. It’s not dark until 10pm and it’s completely light by 4am right now, at this latitude. I have been hearing the birds wake up at 3am lately. Whereas you guys have an extra 2-3 hours of darkness in mid-summer, right? 

Real heat not far away as we are expecting a major heatwave next week according to Northwest European standards.
Details are going to define how warm we will be but with more than 20 degrees at 850 hPa it will be 35C for sure. Looks like wednesday/thursday will be hottest with maybe 37-38C in the south of our little country.  

[greysrigging]

Winter is coming......
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/freezing-start-to-thursday/529854

[Tyrone]

11 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

I have just seen a BBC forecast on TV and it’s saying London should hit 32C on Monday & Tuesday now, with overnight lows of 23-24C in places. My record high overnight low is 26C and London’s is 28C, so that will take some beating. I’m expecting an overnight low of 20-21C on Monday & Tuesday. 

I’m thinking the warmer nights (on hot days) is mainly to do with the short, 6 hour nights at this time of year. It’s not dark until 10pm and it’s completely light by 4am right now, at this latitude. I have been hearing the birds wake up at 3am lately. Whereas you guys have an extra 2-3 hours of darkness in mid-summer, right? 

Yes, even at the southern summer solstice, the sun is lighting the horizon at about 4.50am and has gone below the horizon by about 7.30pm here. The twilight extends maybe 30 to 40 minutes either side of that time. The guys in California would be able to relate to that as they are roughly the same latitude as me. 

My temps are mild due to the vast cool southern ocean only 9kms away. The weather fronts tend to swing up from the SW to Westerly direction and there’s no land to warm them up. Unless I get a northerly direction wind everything comes off the ocean. In fact the warmer the inland areas are north of me, the stronger the sea breezes become in the day and it cools everything down. At night when the temperature variation isn’t as big everything gets calmer and more still.

I remember being in Newcastle in the UK in summer and being amazed that the sun hasn’t gone down by 10.30pm. You can be at the beach and the sun is still in your eyes. At 11.30pm it’s still bright enough to be able to do things around the house, and then the sun looks like it’s about to come up again around 2am. Coming from further from the equator that was a strange experience. Add a heatwave and that would be really weird.

I must admit that the times I’ve been to London it’s always been summer and the nights have been just balmy and the days just beautiful and warm with blue skies. I do recall saying that London summer days make me feel like I’m in Sydney in summer. Humid 25-28C days and then warm nights. Really nice weather.

[sandgroper]

We're in for some wet weather again this weekend, the BOM are saying up around 35mm Saturday and 25mm Sunday. It's been a great wet June for Perth and it's getting out to the eastern wheatbelt making everyone happy. A much warmer start to the day this morning too, 13c here at 7.00am which is a lot more pleasant than the mornings we've been getting.

Edited June 21, 2019 by sandgroper

[sipalms]

Just clocked 18 degrees here at 12.45pm. I'm not complaining... it's the shortest day after all :-)

[Tyrone]

3 hours ago, sandgroper said:

We're in for some wet weather again this weekend, the BOM are saying up around 35mm Saturday and 25mm Sunday. It's been a great wet June for Perth and it's getting out to the eastern wheatbelt making everyone happy. A much warmer start to the day this morning too, 13c here at 7.00am which is a lot more pleasant than the mornings we've been getting.

The modelling gets a little confused I think down here. Yesterday it was showing the front breaking in 2 and basically being quite light down near us. Now it has the low centred over the capes around Saturday night so the low will pass just to my south and drag the rain with it. I think if you're lucky enough to get under a big enough thunderstorm the falls could be heavy. At the moment we are below rainfall for June but just looking at computer models we could have an additional 50-60mm by this time next week when you consider the onshore flow from the westerly stream we'll be in for a few days, which will bring us up to about average.

[cbmnz]

Saw about 18C as well today. But next week the models have a big intense slow moving aniticyclone that may be around for more than 7 days. With timing just after the winter solstice this is the one pattern  that makes me nervous for the garden. No really low temps forecast yet, but that may change. If do see about -4C, as have in the past I may have trouble avoiding some damages.

[greysrigging]

Decent old frost in Alice Springs this morning....-3.2c !.....Brrrr
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/nt/alice-springs/alice-springs

[Tyrone]

Blowing a gale and raining heavy on a Saturday night. It’s warm too for a June night and is around 18C at 8.50pm. That’s a summer night temp for us. 

[Tyrone]

11 hours ago, greysrigging said:

Decent old frost in Alice Springs this morning....-3.2c !.....Brrrr
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/nt/alice-springs/alice-springs

Look at the dew points. Very dry air.

Don’t they grow Cuban Royals there? Amazing they handle such cold dry conditions at night.

[greysrigging]

Can't recall Royals in the Alice, but I've not spent a great deal of time in the town...... Royals ( big ones ! ) are planted in Mt Isa which does see the odd frosty nights.

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, greysrigging said:

Can't recall Royals in the Alice, but I've not spent a great deal of time in the town...... Royals ( big ones ! ) are planted in Mt Isa which does see the odd frosty nights.

My Royal made it through winter and took a -4C frost even. It didn't exactly come out looking fantastic, but it is kicking on again now. Just like the Chambeyronia. I am really pushing the limits at my latitude though.

My fastest growing palm over the past 6 months - Phoenix Dactylifera. Believe it or not...

[Tyrone]

2 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

My Royal made it through winter and took a -4C frost even. It didn't exactly come out looking fantastic, but it is kicking on again now. Just like the Chambeyronia. I am really pushing the limits at my latitude though.

My fastest growing palm over the past 6 months - Phoenix Dactylifera. Believe it or not...

Cuban royals in the uk. That is impressive.

[greysrigging]

Two successive 15.5c mornings AND a decent earthquake just after lunch !
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/earthquake-felt-in-darwin/529868