Autumn(Fall) in the south, Spring in the north

[happ]

Fairly uneventful here as one would expect during late spring. It has, however been a fairly cool month thus far w/ 2 days in the 60's [lowest maximum was 66F\ 18.8C on 5\9] and only 2 days in the 80's [warmest day was 83F\ 28.3C on 5/7]. Nights in the 50's. No rain which is the norm.

[tropicbreeze]

Happ, guess you're in much the same boat as us. No rain likely from now until September at the earliest. By the way, here 5\9 means 5 September and 5\7 means 5 July.

My last report from my place for the next fortnight. From work I rely on the Noonamah AWS (via internet) which is about 5 kms from my place.

So, the minimum this morning was 24.2C (about 75.6F) and the maximum this arvo was 32.8C (about 91.3F). Last night relative humidity peaked at 98%, bottomed out at 61% during today.

At 7:00 pm tonight it was 29C (about 84.2F) with relative humidity at 89%.

The day was off and on cloudy, part of that massive cloud build up over much of the continent. They're getting rain somewhere, but not here. It seems to be all out at sea near here. But places like Lajamanu and Rabbit Flat, out in the desert got 31 mm and 29 mm respectively. The Victoria River District got some good falls. Port Keats (Wadeye) on the Top End west coast got 70 mm. And Noonamah a grand total of zero.

[Tyrone]

The Kimberley has been soaked, and some centres up there had maximums of 19C!!!!!!!!! Weird.

[amazondk]

Happ, guess you're in much the same boat as us. No rain likely from now until September at the earliest. By the way, here 5\9 means 5 September and 5\7 means 5 July.

For some reason those Yanks just don´t do things like the rest of the world.

dk

[PalmsZA]

Hi all

Our weather has been so nice.... even had a few mm on friday night. Looking good for the week ahead.

Min

Max

Durban

Mon

18

28

Tue

17

28

Wed

18

26

Thu

16

25

Fri

15

26

Sat

19

28

Sun

19

26

[ariscott]

Yeah... our weather should be pretty close to yours (except maybe higher day temperature), but the humidity has persisted and some cloud cover during the night now, so even the overnight low is still in the 20's. Weird weather!!

Regards, Ari

[peachy]

A nice balmy 2 degrees again last night and an absolutely freezing 21 today, all overcast and dark. No rain of course. This is the time of year I get snakey and want to move house.

Peachy

[tropicbreeze]

Noonamah AWS recorded a minimum of 25.0C this morning. Not bad for 2 weeks off winter.

Looking at the weather chart there's low pressures everywhere and the only highs are fairly weak. There's rain around but so far not at Noonamah. At the moment there's a big area of rain moving eastwards just below Adelaide River and edging towards Elsharana. Not sure how long this weather is going to last and we get a return to dry season conditions. The MJO is over us now but it will move on.

Stiff upper lip Peachy. Our thoughts are with you, even though our bodies are tucked away snuggly up here.

[happ]

Happ, guess you're in much the same boat as us. No rain likely from now until September at the earliest. By the way, here 5\9 means 5 September and 5\7 means 5 July.

Sorry about that Zig. As Don points out, Americans, for some reason, put the month first even though it would seem more logical to start with the day. There actually is some rainfall happening today north of Pt. Conception and a fair amount of drizzle in coastal Southern California this morning. Probably nothing measurable but nice none-the-less. Today should be well below the norm for mid-May [normal: 78F\ 25.5C but likely under 70F\ 21.1C due to clouds & onshore flow].

[Tyrone]

22C and late rain today. At least the min was close to 10C last night. The high pressure zones and no wind with clear nights is starting to get a bit monotonous, not to mention, cold.

Best regards

Tyrone

[happ]

22C and late rain today. At least the min was close to 10C last night. The high pressure zones and no wind with clear nights is starting to get a bit monotonous, not to mention, cold.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone, I probably asked this question before but can't recall if winter is generally the windiest season in Western Australia? Do you observe gusty offshore wind especially at night during the winter months? That is a common characteristic of winters in California.

[Tyrone]

22C and late rain today. At least the min was close to 10C last night. The high pressure zones and no wind with clear nights is starting to get a bit monotonous, not to mention, cold.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone, I probably asked this question before but can't recall if winter is generally the windiest season in Western Australia? Do you observe gusty offshore wind especially at night during the winter months? That is a common characteristic of winters in California.

No, winter is not the windiest time of year. Excluding approaching cold fronts, winter is actually a calm time of year compared to summer when the easterly winds can fire right up and can get quite savage, especially at the base of the Darling Ranges. The good thing about Perth, even with all its winter rainfall, which is actually one of the wetter winter rainfall climates, the rain comes, falls hard, then the sun is out again. You never get the situation where you go weeks without ever seeing the sun. In the worst part of winter you may go two days without any sun, but that is rare.

Right now it's dead calm, 13.2C and 95% humidity at 10.30pm. Warmer than what it has been lately. It got to 24.6C today.

Best regards

Tyrone

[peachy]

Twice this morning I got up with good intentions and then scurried back under the doona. Neither of the poochies will budge out my bed this morning. Hope its a not a repeat of yesterday. It was so cold that Ralf stayed in bed till noon and it was after 3 before Huntley-Albert deigned to surface. Our night temperatures have been 6 below the normal May averages. Looks like its going to be a long winter this year. Need I add that it is also extremely dry.

Peachy

[happ]

22C and late rain today. At least the min was close to 10C last night. The high pressure zones and no wind with clear nights is starting to get a bit monotonous, not to mention, cold.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone, I probably asked this question before but can't recall if winter is generally the windiest season in Western Australia? Do you observe gusty offshore wind especially at night during the winter months? That is a common characteristic of winters in California.

No, winter is not the windiest time of year. Excluding approaching cold fronts, winter is actually a calm time of year compared to summer when the easterly winds can fire right up and can get quite savage, especially at the base of the Darling Ranges. The good thing about Perth, even with all its winter rainfall, which is actually one of the wetter winter rainfall climates, the rain comes, falls hard, then the sun is out again. You never get the situation where you go weeks without ever seeing the sun. In the worst part of winter you may go two days without any sun, but that is rare.

Right now it's dead calm, 13.2C and 95% humidity at 10.30pm. Warmer than what it has been lately. It got to 24.6C today.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone,

There are a fair amount of similarities between Western Australia and California since they are both "Mediterranean" climates. That's why I pay particularly close attention to your posts. On the other hand, there are distinct differences as well. I think overall that Perth is more humid. Not having to contend with winter wind is a definite plus to avoid yellowing and frond damage. Winter brings some of the lowest humidity\ dew points of the year to Los Angeles and nocturnal wind is common. The plus side to these winds is the mixing of the cold night air & near total immunity to frost.

[Tyrone]

22C and late rain today. At least the min was close to 10C last night. The high pressure zones and no wind with clear nights is starting to get a bit monotonous, not to mention, cold.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone, I probably asked this question before but can't recall if winter is generally the windiest season in Western Australia? Do you observe gusty offshore wind especially at night during the winter months? That is a common characteristic of winters in California.

No, winter is not the windiest time of year. Excluding approaching cold fronts, winter is actually a calm time of year compared to summer when the easterly winds can fire right up and can get quite savage, especially at the base of the Darling Ranges. The good thing about Perth, even with all its winter rainfall, which is actually one of the wetter winter rainfall climates, the rain comes, falls hard, then the sun is out again. You never get the situation where you go weeks without ever seeing the sun. In the worst part of winter you may go two days without any sun, but that is rare.

Right now it's dead calm, 13.2C and 95% humidity at 10.30pm. Warmer than what it has been lately. It got to 24.6C today.

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone,

There are a fair amount of similarities between Western Australia and California since they are both "Mediterranean" climates. That's why I pay particularly close attention to your posts. On the other hand, there are distinct differences as well. I think overall that Perth is more humid. Not having to contend with winter wind is a definite plus to avoid yellowing and frond damage. Winter brings some of the lowest humidity\ dew points of the year to Los Angeles and nocturnal wind is common. The plus side to these winds is the mixing of the cold night air & near total immunity to frost.

That is interesting. Winter here is high in relative humidity, ie damp and cool, but not high in dewpoint. The dewpoints in winter are normally around 4-10C and RH between 60-100% all the time. Summer on the other hand is the time of yoyoing humidity and dewpoints depending on the high pressure zones moving through. In a week in summer RH can range from 10-100% and dewpoints from 2-20C depending on where the high pressure zone is, and whether warm tropical air is being sucked in behind a high.

Today was 27.8C and I think I got sunburnt. Only 11 days until winter. I watered today. Everything was going bone dry. The rain starts this weekend, and June will be a month where you hope the rain will just stop.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Tyrone]

Woke to a temp of 19.4C at 5.30am. The min was 18.2C. Very warm for May. That cold front coming through tonight is going to be a powerful one I think. Going for a max of 23C but as we're almost there it may go higher depending on when the cold front hits. It could be another 28C day.

Best regards

Tyrone

[ariscott]

It is raining here... today and yesterday.... not much for us... but more for the Darwin northern suburbs... only 5mm so far. But hey.... 5mm is better than no mm and definitely welcome any other mm that is willing to come our way. The garden hasn't stopped growing... everything still looks happy and green. Can't complain... the best dry season ever so far. I wonder what would happen to the tourists?? '

Regards, Ari

[tropicbreeze]

The minimums have been sitting nicely for the past few days, although a couple of days ago it did drop right down to 23.6C (about 74.5F). However, this morning's low shown on the Noonamah AWS was 24.8C (about 76.9F). Plus there was a grand total of 4 mm of rain. Humidity had peaked at 95% over night. Yesterday's maximum was 32.6C (about 90.7F) with the relative humidity bottoming out at 61%. And 10 days before winter arrives.

Some comments about the long term trends have been for this weather to last for up to a month. Now that's the sort of dry season I could quite easily cope with.

[tropicbreeze]

Tyrone, I think winter is sitting behind that cold front that's about to arrive on your doorstep. The data doesn't look too good. There's a huge mass of very cold air moving across your way.

We're still in the doldrums here. A lot of overcast skies looking like it's still the wet season and with hot steamy sunny breaks. The rain is very patchy and fairly heavy in places. At work I'm sometimes driving through rain and sloshy mud, and then a few kilometres down the road I'm kicking up clouds of dust.

There appears to be a low pressure trying to form in the Timor Sea, between Timor and the Kimberley. Not showing up on the surface pressure charts yet, although maybe the influence of the high will prevent it developing. If it does develop it'll add to this humid weather we're getting.

This morning Noonamah AWS recorded a minimum of 24.3C (about 76F) with relative humidity peaking at 95%. Yesterday's maximum was 33.3C (about 92F) with relative humidity bottoming out at 60%.

[ariscott]

Wow... 29.1 deg at 9.30 already with 86% humidity!! It is going to be a hot one... Welcome to the 'build up' (oops... isn't it supposed to be dry season??)

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Zig, We've just had 20mm of good solid rain. No high winds. The temp at 8.15am is 14.9C which is the coolest it's been all night. A lull in the arms of the low right now. Another arm will likely get us in an hour or so. The garden was so dry it's nice to get some good rain.

There is a big mass of cold air coming up from the south but it looks like it will get to us from the west, so it has to move over a warmish ocean, so we'll get good rain. Once it effects the coast directly from the south the low will be further east, so the south coast will get the brunt of the high winds and frigid air. But they're used to it down there. Many English immigrants love the south coast because it's more to their liking. There is a big difference in temp between Albany and Perth which is a 400km distance. Not so much difference between Perth and Geraldton which is 400km north. It's the west coast effect.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Miccles]

Gunna be cold here tonight.....

Frost Warning

for the Western, North Central, Northern Country, Wimmera, CENTRAL (Melbourne), West and

South Gippsland and Northeast forecast districts.

Issued at 3:47 pm EST on Saturday 22 May 2010.

================================================================================

Please be aware

Temperatures at ground level can be many degrees lower than those recorded by

standard weather stations, especially in calm conditions with very clear skies.

================================================================================

Frosts with temperatures down to 0 degrees are forecast for Sunday morning in

parts of the Western, North Central, Northern Country, Wimmera, Central, West

and South Gippsland and Northeast forecast districts.

***********************************************************************

My guess for my little patch ? I reckon 2C or 3C.

Regards

Michael.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

woke up this morning to a blanket of light frost ,with a minimum overnight of 0.4 C (last winter and the one before that it only got as low as 0C . It was still 6C at 11:30 (very unusual)

All palms were fine even the little Rhpalostylis Chatham Island seedling with ice on its tiny fronds . The banana is still ok - now that was a big surprise . Anyway more cold forcast for tonight .

[ariscott]

Raining here today.... close to 20mm!! Can't complain!! The garden looks so good :)

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Ended up with another 18mm since 9am so we've had about 38mm of rain today. We got a max of 19.5C and close to midnight it's about 16.9C with 83% RH. The wind has turned to the SW. I just got back from Narrogin about 120km inland and it was cold out there with nowhere near the rain we had in Perth and along the Darling Ranges. Many of the paddocks had water pooling everywhere on the way out there and many dams would have completely filled with this event. Coming back to Perth at low elevation it feels way warmer, and wetter.

[Tyrone]

Gunna be cold here tonight.....

Frost Warning

for the Western, North Central, Northern Country, Wimmera, CENTRAL (Melbourne), West and

South Gippsland and Northeast forecast districts.

Issued at 3:47 pm EST on Saturday 22 May 2010.

================================================================================

Please be aware

Temperatures at ground level can be many degrees lower than those recorded by

standard weather stations, especially in calm conditions with very clear skies.

================================================================================

Frosts with temperatures down to 0 degrees are forecast for Sunday morning in

parts of the Western, North Central, Northern Country, Wimmera, Central, West

and South Gippsland and Northeast forecast districts.

***********************************************************************

My guess for my little patch ? I reckon 2C or 3C.

Regards

Michael.

I'm thinking of you mate. But everything you have will do fine in those temps. I doubt anything will really notice it much.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Miccles]

It WAS cold...but not too shabby here.....got down to 4C here. No complaints.

"MELBOURNE recorded its coldest temperature for the year as the mercury plummeted across Victoria overnight.

The city recorded a low of 4C at 5.14am today, with the suburbs even colder.

At 7am Avalon recorded 0C, while Laverton had a low of 0.1C and Essendon 0.2C.

Temperatures fell to 0.8C at 6.05am in Moorabbin and 0.4C at Scoresby a short time earlier.

Weather bureau senior forecaster Terry Ryan said Melbourne’s overnight low beat the year-long record set yesterday of 4.3C.

"It is one of the colder ones for Melbourne in the suburbs for May,’’ Mr Ryan said.

"We do not get under 4C much.’’

Victoria’s lowest overnight temperature was in Omeo on the northwest ranges, where it dipped to -3.7C at 7.30am.

It was -3.6C at Horsham in the west while Westmere recorded -3.2C at 6.55am.

Mr Ryan said temperatures would be warmer next week, with rain forecast tomorrow and Tuesday statewide.

Northern Victoria was especially likely to benefit, he said.

Sunny conditions with a top of 18C are predicted for Melbourne today."

[Tyrone]

We had 39mm of rain yesterday and although the day was mainly around 16C all day, the coconut grew about 2cm overnight!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. A bit of rain did get to it, but it lapped it up. This coconut is amazing me the way it just wants to keep growing despite the weather.

Best regards

Tyrone

[tropicbreeze]

This morning opened looking like a dry season day, except you could still feel the humidity. Noonamah AWS recorded a minimum of 24.8C (about 76.5F) with peak humidity of 96%. Yesterday got to a maximum of 34.0C (about 93.2F) with humidity bottoming out at 48%. If we don't get a build up of cloud through the day it's going to get really stinking hot. In exactly one week it'll be winter, and about 1 month into the dry season.

[peachy]

Cold and overcast here today again. Unlikely to rain however, although the weather bureau disagrees with me. The rain late last week that dumped over 60mm on the Sth East of the state, deigned to let a whole 5mm land on me. Still everything is sending up spears and the camellias are flowering so my sprinkler and hand hosing must be adequate, though barely. Had the use of a ute for a few days to cart some mulch home but the prices were astronomical. As soon as it went back, my local supplier rang to say that he had bales of lucerne for $4.90 each. I am still driving the borrowed Buzz Box, which will hold one bale with the back seat folded down. Naturally I am using the bad word that Ari taught me.

Peachy

[ariscott]

Bad word?? Me??? Never.... :lol:

BTW, still HOT and HUMID today... Where is the dry season (not that I am complaining...)? Although, it is nice not to sweat sometimes during the year though....

Regards, Ari

[happ]

Staying very cool in California with even weak storms though very little actual rainfall. Listening to the radio in the car last night the announcer mentioned minimums in the 40's\ 5C-10C for the valleys. I thought he must be misreading the forecast until I got out of the car & the temp was 53F\ 11.6C before midnight. It didn't actually drop in the 40's at most locations but none-the-less the temps lately have been really chilly. I was surprized it even reached 70F\ 21.1C today with strong wind & some cloudiness.

[ariscott]

Happ,

Aren't you supposed to be having summer... well almost?

Regards, Ari

[Rafael]

Portugal, almost summer, after 4 days with 16/32ºC (and a lot of dryness), temps will fall about 10ºC for the next seven days...Who predicts the weather? Always changing a lot...We must be always awake and not go for vacations, or some palms may suffer...

Edited May 24, 2010 by rafael

[Tyrone]

Sunny and just over 18C today. Showers and temps around 19-20C all week from Wed. Winter has come on time this year. Hopefully spring will come on time too or early.

Best regards

Tyrone

[tropicbreeze]

Peachy, just look at it this way, "It only rains on the unloved". You obviously must be very loved.

Ari, every time it looks like the dry season might finally arrive the weather gets humid again. If it doesn't arrive by July we might be in for an early and extra hot build-up.

Happ, is that normal for this time of year? As I understand it, you lot regard summer as starting about 22nd June whereas our change of seasons is regarded as the first of the month.

Rafael, I travelled in Portugal years ago. From memory the southern coastal part of the country is a lot warmer than the north. I also remember seeing palms other than Canary Island Date Palms in Lisbon used as street plantings. Don't remember what type they were.

Tyrone, good luck with your winter. The weather data seems to show (relatively) warmer air moving your way for a while. Does your rain require a cold blast to trigger it?

Today Noonamah AWS recorded a maximum of 35.7C (about 96F).

[ariscott]

Early build up I can handle.... not sure about extra hot though

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Zig, the cold southerly blast is going to end for a while. We don't need a cold blast to trigger rain thankfully. I hope it rains right through your dry season. If it does you're now equatorial.

Best regards

Tyrone

[peachy]

Anybody want to share my large serving of humble pie ? 4mm of rain so far tonight and more on the way. It's still 15c at 5.30 in the morning (feels bloody cold though) with 98% humidity. I wont have to spend 4 hours hosing tomorrow and with rain, even the little bit that has fallen,the ground will be softened up enough for me to dig some smaller holes and not die in the process. Der Morgige Tag ist meine !! Zig, I have my 2 furry boys who love me and my 2 feathered boys, maybe I should get rid of them so it will rain on me more often. I know that if I wasnt buying 5 kilos of rump steak, 2 chickens and a bag of nectar powder every week I would have a lot more money to spend on palms too.

Peachy

[Tyrone]

7C again this morning. Blue sky and 19C today. Winter weather.