Southern Hemisphere Growing Season 2025/26

[Tyrone]

I’m looking forward to some thunderstorms and rain and it looks like it may happen with a few mms on Saturday and Sunday.
My place is on rain tank water and we don’t get mains water piped in and I do water some of my potted palms around the house (hundreds of them) from this same water.  The other day I came home to hear water gushing and found I’d left a hose on at the tap and the spray fitting which was closed had partially pushed itself off and so parts of the lawn got a luxurious many thousands of litres watering. I’ve still got enough water to last but my safety buffer is largely diminished so I will take any rain I can get at the moment. 

[Tyrone]

Going for 31C today and thunderstorms tonight. Models are saying around 20mm overnight but thunderstorms can be incredibly hard to predict. 
It doesn’t get any better than this down here. 

[Jonathan]

Hobart just doing its thing - consistently inconsistent! We never have time to get bored with the weather down here...

[Tyrone]

12 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Hobart just doing its thing - consistently inconsistent! We never have time to get bored with the weather down here...

That’ll be my area in about a month. 

[Tyrone]

Had a 36C day yesterday. 
I got up this morning to cloud rain forest conditions 20C and 97% RH with clouds probably descending to ground level complete with soaking fine drissle which the trees were capturing and turning into heavier rain underneath. You can literally hear the rain falling loudly under the trees but in the open it’s basically silent except for birds singing. Water is running into the tank quite fast. However if you check the radar, it’s not showing up. Probably because I’m in a valley at 13m asl and the radar tower is based at 70m asl. 
A truly beautiful morning that all the plants will be loving. 

 

[cbmnz]

Some cooler overnight lows of 8 to 9C predicted in the next few days, my station  has not seen single figures since a low of 9.0 on 18th Dec and before that have to go back to 17th November.

It has not really been a hot February at all save for a few days last week,  running about 1C above average but that because the overnight lows have been mild.  Weather does its own thing, just because a summer starts well above average tells you nothing about what the second half of it will be like. 

Fortunate to not be hit my any damaging wind or rain,  have to be thankful for that. 

 

[Tyrone]

15 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Some cooler overnight lows of 8 to 9C predicted in the next few days, my station  has not seen single figures since a low of 9.0 on 18th Dec and before that have to go back to 17th November.

It has not really been a hot February at all save for a few days last week,  running about 1C above average but that because the overnight lows have been mild.  Weather does its own thing, just because a summer starts well above average tells you nothing about what the second half of it will be like. 

Fortunate to not be hit my any damaging wind or rain,  have to be thankful for that. 

 

Yes it’s been a mild summer and although it’s not over yet (so there is still time for a scorcher) we haven’t been above 38.2C which is great because the last few years we exceeded 40C in summer a few times. Those sort of temps can kill heat sensitive plants even in basically full shade. Got a couple of single digit mins coming this week, so I think we are on the same program as NZ. 

[cbmnz]

Last flush of summer this week before cold Southerlies arrive on Mon and Tuesday then back to average.   My station briefly touched 30C today in the late afternoon.  Interestingly in my records since 2017 it's never done so in March, 29.8 is the highest.

[Jonathan]

25 degrees with 20mm of rain today, a nice start to autumn after a dry February.

[Tyrone]

I’m looking forward to some rain. Luckily the retic keeps everything green and lush and the soil is moisture retentive which is good at this time of year. Not great in wet old winter. Going for 29C today and 33C on Saturday but nothing below mid twenties forecast. March on average is warmer than December here but with every shortening days of course. The day length is starting to drop away quickly now as we approach equinox. 

[tropicbreeze]

February continued our above average pattern of rainfall with 385.8mm, 121.2% of average. 

This kept February temperatures down
Ave. Max  25.1
Ave. min  32.3
The sun is now to our north. UV rating is up to 15, however with the frequent cloud cover it's not so noticeable. 

The humidity ranges from the mid 80's to the high 90's over the 24 hour cycle. A monsoon trough has developed across the top of Australia, the fourth and strongest this season. Four tropical lows along it continue to bring lots of rain and some severe weather, but are not expected to intensify into tropical cyclones. Over the weekend one of the tropical lows will move over us, flood warnings have been issued. Next week the monsoon trough is expected to dissipate and rain to ease.

This is getting back to some of the wet seasons we were having 10 to 15 years ago.

[Jonathan]

It's holding steady here, in fact the weather has been very settled for the last few weeks in general. The pattern in recent years seems to be summer starting late and ending late...hoping that's the case again this year.

[Tyrone]

Yes I think it’s going to keep going this year. Got a 29C tomorrow then a 35C on Wednesday then 30C Thursday then 24C then back up to high twenties with nights in the mid to high teens. Not bad. It has been cool during the day the last few days but warm at night with drizzle and clouds. We had a min around 18C but barely got to 20C today with rain on and off. The gardens loving it. Palms are opening spears and flowers are opening spathes. Something has fallen out of the sky every day for the last week as we are in persistent easterlies with rain drifting in off the ocean. 

[Jonathan]

19 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Yes I think it’s going to keep going this year. Got a 29C tomorrow then a 35C on Wednesday then 30C Thursday then 24C then back up to high twenties with nights in the mid to high teens. Not bad. It has been cool during the day the last few days but warm at night with drizzle and clouds. We had a min around 18C but barely got to 20C today with rain on and off. The gardens loving it. Palms are opening spears and flowers are opening spathes. Something has fallen out of the sky every day for the last week as we are in persistent easterlies with rain drifting in off the ocean. 

Sounds pretty nice Tyrone!

I'm trying not to get lulled into a false sense of security...last year I was watering flat out and pushing growth deep into Autumn, then we got an early frost which damaged a few young leaves and browned some tips. Might let everything harden off a bit earlier this year.

[Tyrone]

15 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Sounds pretty nice Tyrone!

I'm trying not to get lulled into a false sense of security...last year I was watering flat out and pushing growth deep into Autumn, then we got an early frost which damaged a few young leaves and browned some tips. Might let everything harden off a bit earlier this year.

Yes frost is the great leveller. One good season can be ruined by one frost event. Can you get autumn frost where you are?

[Tyrone]

Far north QLD is about to be hit by a tropical cyclone that track maps are showing walks west travelling below Darwin and into WA where it regains strength and comes down the WA coast to my region later next week. It would be nice to get a decent dumping of rain but it’s way too early to call where it exactly goes this far out. 
Summer is still continuing over here with a 35C yesterday and 3 27C days in a row. Some decent rain would be nice now. 

[cbmnz]

It has not rained significantly her since mid Feb and the last two weeks in particular have been Mediterranean like with almost continuous clear sky's and very little wind. Lucky there was plenty of rain up until it stopped.  

Maybe some rain at the end of this coming week. The lawn stopped growing as of two weeks ago. 

 

[Jonathan]

On 3/18/2026 at 10:37 AM, Tyrone said:

Yes frost is the great leveller. One good season can be ruined by one frost event. Can you get autumn frost where you are?

Very unusual but not impossible. Usually no frost before June, but like all things with Tassie weather, you'd be a fool to rely on that assumption! 

27 here today, though looking like some rain and cooler conditions ahead this week...rain will be much appreciated.

[Tyrone]

It’s cool and cloudy here now in the low twenties. It looks like Narelle will pay a visit on Saturday night and Sunday. She gets around. 

[Jonathan]

9 hours ago, Tyrone said:

It’s cool and cloudy here now in the low twenties. It looks like Narelle will pay a visit on Saturday night and Sunday. She gets around. 

So they say...but I think she's OK!

[Tyrone]

Here comes Narelle