Australian Weather

[Willoughby]

Storm season kicking into gear today with significant thunderstorms through Brisbane and surrounds this arvie.

Screenshot_20191017-180040_RadarScope.jpg

Special 06Z sounding from Brisbane Airport showed good shear, good instability and a moist lower column pre line arrival.

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[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I see that on the blitz.

[tornado]

I see that on the blitz.

same. its heading towards nz but i figure it may weaken as always

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

same. its heading towards nz but i figure it may weaken as always

You are right. It's because of Climate Change. No funding to keep these lightning storms alive in areas that don't need them.
For proper Climate Change funding, you need countries like China to stop wasting lots of money on using fossil fuels and developing futuristic techniques like using the sun for energy, etc. It will happen, the proper techniques for that will develop as technology has developed quite a lot over the last 50 years or so.
...sorry off topic there

[spwill]

In general it seems to me there is a weaker than normal start to the Australian thunderstorm season this year?

[Willoughby]

In general it seems to me there is a weaker than normal start to the Australian thunderstorm season this year?

Yes, lots of drier westerlies the last couple of weeks with the highs further north. Troughy right now though.

It remains a pretty bad drought in the south:

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[Willoughby]

Currently watching the position of the cooling sea breeze to see if Darwin Airport can break the all time temperature record.

Max so far today: 37.9C at 1158AM

All time record: 38.9C on 18 October in 1982

http://www.bom.gov.au/nt/observations/d ... ml?ref=hdr

[David]

I see it maxed out at 38.2C, second highest on record. I was a little surprised to find out Darwin has never reached 40C before in its weather records.

[Nev]

Darwin's old Post Office site apparently recorded 40.4C on 17 Oct 1892 (not sure how kosher that is though?).

[Willoughby]

I see it maxed out at 38.2C, second highest on record. I was a little surprised to find out Darwin has never reached 40C before in its weather records.

Yes, the sea breeze is just far too reliable here, in everyday by 2pm without fail. Yesterday's was 'on time' at 1230pm.

Darwin's old Post Office site apparently recorded 40.4C on 17 Oct 1892 (not sure how kosher that is though?).

Date is when it would happen and could have easily happened if the sea breeze was very late and synoptic setup was pretty special.

We're heading for the worst bushfire season on record going by scar print. Late yesterday fires intensify and new ones start. Often all it takes is a stray glass bottle in direct sunlight, then spread by birds of prey.

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[David]

37 in Adelaide yesterday with extremely low humidity, one of the BOM stations has 2% showing on it's observations at one point!

[Cyclone Tracy]

Many inland parts of OZ are getting hammered by the positive IOD. Broken Hill currently on 52mm YTD (record lowest year 70mm 1982) but an inland trough is becoming likely to drop more rain than has fallen so far this year over the coming days. Hope EC is right for their sake.

Broken Hill EC projection.jpg

[Willoughby]

Yes pretty bad there - updated map:

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[Willoughby]

More on the birds of prey moving and setting fires: (tgsnoopy asked me about this)
https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/aust ... h-out-prey

[RWood]

Many inland parts of OZ are getting hammered by the positive IOD. Broken Hill currently on 52mm YTD (record lowest year 70mm 1982) but an inland trough is becoming likely to drop more rain than has fallen so far this year over the coming days. Hope EC is right for their sake.

Broken Hill EC projection.jpg

5th driest October for Australia. All of the capital cities appear to have had a drier and sunnier October than usual, reflecting the widespread dryness.

[Cyclone Tracy]

Not a drought breaker but some relief for large areas of QLD, NSW and North West Victoria over the last week.

BoM 1 week rainfall map.jpg

[Willoughby]

An immense amount of raised dust from the interior heading over the Tasman today...

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[Richard]

You can clearly see that dust this morning over head.

[Richard]

It's quite streaky, most times we see it more evenly distributed across the sky

IMG_20191108_093425.jpg

[Willoughby]

Shocking amount of bushfires over the NSW north coast. Dewpoints into the negatives there the last couple of days and today..

Increased haze by the looks for much of NZ.

image.png

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/weat ... 538fq.html

[Richard]

Got a hell of a lot worse since that snap shot was taken Will

[Willoughby]

Yep - really not good there at all.

"The RFS has received multiple reports of people being trapped in their homes, and the fires have the potential to threaten communities and destroy homes"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-08/ ... g/11687126


Evans Head NSW AWS (coastal) reports 37/M06 right now with gusty NWerlies right after reaching 41, very shy off it's all time record.

[tornado]

Yep - really not good there at all.

"The RFS has received multiple reports of people being trapped in their homes, and the fires have the potential to threaten communities and destroy homes"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-08/ ... g/11687126


Evans Head NSW AWS (coastal) reports 37/M06 right now with gusty NWerlies right after reaching 41, very shy off it's all time record.

wow thats bad man.. they really need a big rain storm or something to end the draught.

[spwill]

Looking at the GFS I see a lack of instability across Australia over the next week, November is thunderstorm season.

[tgsnoopy]

Looking at the GFS I see a lack of instability across Australia over the next week, November is thunderstorm season.

Pity it's not today. Beautiful day in Sydney and I'm flying to Brisbane on QF524 in a few hours.