NZ Weather Forum

Can confirm it has indeed been hot and humid here in Brisbane for the past week, warmest night here in three years.

Came across these amazingly photogenic waterspouts off Queensland's Whitsundays Airlie Beach around dawn on April 13...


Credit/Source: Catch My Drift Charters Whitsundays. Also see short video.

I see that Australia recorded just 27% of its 1961-1990 average rainfall for May, making it the nation's 2nd driest May in 124 years of records - only May 2006 was drier.


Australia's national mean temp was also considerably cooler than normal, at 1.10°C below its 1961-1990 average for May.

There was a slight frost at Hobart Airport overnight into Monday 5th June - the temperature fell to a low of -0.6°C. A bit further up the Derwent River, the BOM site at Bushy Park Estate had a low of -3.4°C and at Liawenee, high up (at 1000m) on the central plateau, -5.0°C was recorded. The latter site had recorded a low of -8.1°C the previous morning.

Last Winter season (May to Sept 2022) there was only one air frost at the Hobart Airport site - a low of -0.4°C on 21st July 2022.

Simon Culling wrote: ↑Tue 06/06/2023 10:36 There was a slight frost at Hobart Airport overnight into Monday 5th June - the temperature fell to a low of -0.6°C. A bit further up the Derwent River, the BOM site at Bushy Park Estate had a low of -3.4°C and at Liawenee, high up (at 1000m) on the central plateau, -5.0°C was recorded. The latter site had recorded a low of -8.1°C the previous morning.

Last Winter season (May to Sept 2022) there was only one air frost at the Hobart Airport site - a low of -0.4°C on 21st July 2022.

Just for comparison, Hobart Airport averages about 3 air-frost days per year, Bushy Park about 40 days and Liawenee roughly about 140 days.

Thanks, Nev - you have made my point for me. The coastal site at Hobart has very little frost, but just a short way inland, many nights have a slight frost. The BOM site at Grove Research Station, which is to the SW of Hobart and a little way inland, must have around the same number as Bushy Park.

The figure of approx. 40 is a little more than we might expect in a year here in Tiverton, Devon.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-01/ ... /102546872

Unseasonably wet (and cold) in the interior lately.

Continuing the theme of frosts at Hobart Airport, they had another one on 3rd July when the temperature fell to -1.2°C. This make three for the winter so far, which is now about average. However, since then it has become a lot milder and Hobart recorded its warmest ever July night on the 13th with a 24 hour low (to 9am on the 13th) of 13.0°C. This was repeated at a number of other sites on the island.

https://twitter.com/BOM_Tas/status/1679314897048412162

The long established weather station at Observatory Hill, Sydney, equalled its September record high temperature of 34.6°C on Tuesday 19th September 2023. Its records date back to 1858.

The met site at the Airport broke its September record with a high of 35.9°C - it records date back to 1929.

https://twitter.com/BOM_au/status/1704043210665017469

Simon Culling wrote: ↑Wed 20/09/2023 05:57 The long established weather station at Observatory Hill, Sydney, equalled its September record high temperature of 34.6°C on Tuesday 19th September 2023. Its records date back to 1858.

The met site at the Airport broke its September record with a high of 35.9°C - it records date back to 1929.

https://twitter.com/BOM_au/status/1704043210665017469

Sydney Aero also recorded its 2nd highest Sep temp of 35.7C today, again beating its previous record of 35.6C set in 2000.

A mere 33.9C at Observatory Hill today.

The BOM site for Perth (Regional Office), Western Australia, recorded its highest ever September temperature today, the 27th, with a figure of 34.2°C. According to the BOM site statistics, this beats the old record of 32.7°C set on 30th Sept 1918 on a record dating back to 1876. The airport reported a high of 34.9°C which beat the old record of 34.5°C set on 20th Sept 2014 - it has a record dating back to 1944.

https://twitter.com/bbcweather/status/1 ... 6484635692

I love the sentence "this is due to a mass of hot air moving across Western Australia" on the BBC piece.

Simon Culling wrote: ↑Thu 28/09/2023 09:59 The BOM site for Perth (Regional Office), Western Australia, recorded its highest ever September temperature today, the 27th, with a figure of 34.2°C. According to the BOM site statistics, this beats the old record of 32.7°C set on 30th Sept 1918 on a record dating back to 1876. The airport reported a high of 34.9°C which beat the old record of 34.5°C set on 20th Sept 2014 - it has a record dating back to 1944.

https://twitter.com/bbcweather/status/1 ... 6484635692

I love the sentence "this is due to a mass of hot air moving across Western Australia" on the BBC piece.

That 1918 record of 32.7°C at the Perth Regional Office is for records between 1897 and 1992. The 34.3°C recorded yesterday at the current Perth Metro site (about 4km further north) just tipped its previous record of 34.2°C set in 2014 from records since 1994 (as per your tweet). Airport figures are ok.

Worst start to the wet season here since 1953 with just 1.6mm in October. That's 1.6mm since April too! So very dry conditions about.
Himawari Fire/flood colour filter shows up all the recent fires well across northern Australia. Darker areas as scarred land:

A sharp thunderstorm in the north of Queensland on the evening of Wednesday 22nd November gave nearly 100mm in an hour at the BOM weather site at Georgetown Airport. According to this Weatherzone article, 35.8mm fell in 10 minutes and 95.4mm in one hour.

Full article here:

https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/nea ... queensland

https://twitter.com/weatherzone/status/ ... 7430278503

Sydney Airport recorded its highest December temperature on Saturday 9th - with a high of 43.5°C.

https://twitter.com/bbcweather/status/1 ... 2658024895

Looking at the BOM file on this site, its record dates back to 1929. The previous high for December was 43.2°C on 21st December 1994.

Simon Culling wrote: ↑Sun 10/12/2023 13:01 Sydney Airport recorded its highest December temperature on Saturday 9th - with a high of 43.5°C.

https://twitter.com/bbcweather/status/1 ... 2658024895

Looking at the BOM file on this site, its record dates back to 1929. The previous high for December was 43.2°C on 21st December 1994.

Rainfall records at Sydney Airport are from 1929... temp records are from 1939.

Thanks, Nev - I have worked out where you get the years 1929 and 1939 from!!

When I use the BOM site for this type of data, the downloaded excel sheets are no longer neat tabulations, but a jumble of data in a series of lines. Do you have the same issue or is my computer/software the reason for this? As a result, the figures are awkward to retrieve.

Simon Culling wrote: ↑Sun 10/12/2023 20:53
When I use the BOM site for this type of data, the downloaded excel sheets are no longer neat tabulations, but a jumble of data in a series of lines. Do you have the same issue or is my computer/software the reason for this? As a result, the figures are awkward to retrieve.

Hi Simon. No issue here viewing the BoM stats on their webpages if that's what you're referring to?
Attached is a sample of what I see for their Sydney Airport page:

I'm missing out on a lot of storms in Epping, Melbourne. I've had so many disapate when coming from the West before they get to me. Keep missing rainfall from the north too. I think we've had a lot less rainfall then a lot of Melbourne recently. It's frustrating seeing the south east getting hammered by the bay effect.

Last night a big storm was next to me on the radar, coming from the unusual direction of the north!! I've never seen such frequent lightning in my life(probably due to 2 storms either side of me). I've seen storms in Malaysia and Thailand, and south east Queensland and that lightning frequency must of been like the wet season in Darwin that I've seen on YouTube. There was lightning hidden by clouds every few seconds, but eventually I managed to see some crazy forked lightning out my window.

Crazy dew points for temperatures recently. Feels like the tropics. This morning I noticed the Viewbank site had a 24 degree dewpoint!!

Supposed to get severe storms this afternoon, I've heard some thunder and I am just hoping for rain.. no large hailstones please.

Some of these details have also been posted in the Tropical Cyclone Season section, but I have added them here as well. The BOM sites for Cairns have reported the following rainfall totals for the 4 days (96 hours) to 09Z on Sunday 17th December:

569mm at Cairns Airport (another 92mm on Sunday up to 2:30pm then it stopped - probably flooded!)
568mm at Cairns Racecourse (another 278mm to 4am Monday - 5 day total will be in excess of 850mm)

Picture of a flooded Cairns Airport taken from the Brisbane Times.

Some serious flooding just to the north of Carins visible from the Skyrail gondola that heads up to Kuranda.
Unfortunately, the Camera that points at the Barron Falls has been offline for the last 23 hours, so cannot see them in full flow.

6 days ago: Today:

One of the largest daily rainfall totals for all of Australia was recorded in this spell. 870mm was apparently recorded at Bairds, Queensland in the 24 hours to 9am on December 18th.

Does anyone know where Bairds is? I could only find reference to a small island just off the coast in the far north of Queensland which is well away from the area of heaviest rain.

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/stat ... 1189658779

Simon Culling wrote: ↑Wed 20/12/2023 06:26 One of the largest daily rainfall totals for all of Australia was recorded in this spell. 870mm was apparently recorded at Bairds, Queensland in the 24 hours to 9am on December 18th.

Does anyone know where Bairds is? I could only find reference to a small island just off the coast in the far north of Queensland which is well away from the area of heaviest rain.

https://twitter.com/ThierryGooseBC/stat ... 1189658779

I asked Cam H. a fellow stormchaser who is in Gove NT Au. His reply...

Yeah I don't think it's an AWS... just an automatic rain gauge which is why it doesn't show up on the obs page.

He supplied an image:
Note he works for BOM and that might be off an official document or system.

Some epic hail in Queensland earlier this afternoon. The beginning of a very volatile few days for Eastern Australia.

darcyplumb wrote: ↑Sun 24/12/2023 18:21 Some epic hail in Queensland earlier this afternoon. The beginning of a very volatile few days for Eastern Australia.

That's a real Gorilla hail stone, that one