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

[Tyrone]

Much cooler today and humid. Only getting to 30C with a chance of a shower. I lost one of my Madfox seedlings lastnight. Died just like that. It must have been the 29C min and then a 41C day, although where it was wouldn't have seen low humidity or that 41C max. It hasn't really been tropical mountain weather here lately.

A cyclone has formed off the NE coast of QLD too. Maybe the monsoon will come back to Oz after all.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Cycadcenter]

I think it may be a longshot but BOM is keeping an eye on this one:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/cyclone-ului-heading-for-coast/story-e6freoof-1225840376953

[happ]

Much cooler today and humid. Only getting to 30C with a chance of a shower. I lost one of my Madfox seedlings lastnight. Died just like that. It must have been the 29C min and then a 41C day, although where it was wouldn't have seen low humidity or that 41C max. It hasn't really been tropical mountain weather here lately.

A cyclone has formed off the NE coast of QLD too. Maybe the monsoon will come back to Oz after all.

Best regards

Tyrone

41C\ 105F is very hot, not unlike autumn in SoCal but a minimum of 29C\ 84F is quite rare except in some particularly windy foothill locales. Minimums in the 80's\ 27-32C do occur in the desert east of Los Angeles. How far is the desert from Perth? In nasty humidity [ie. July 2006] very warm minimums spread to the coast. It's no wonder archontophoenix look their worst after summer.

[ariscott]

Raining yesterday and raining this morning!!! Can't complain... it is enough to wet the garden and cool everything down.... Hhhmmm... this is the life!!

Regards, Ari

[Cycadcenter]

Twin cyclones in the Pacific

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/sohemi/sohemiloops/shirgmscol.html

[Miccles]

Forecast for the next week down here.

Day: Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa

Max: 26 27 28 28 26 28 27 ( Deg C)

Min: 15 16 17 18 18 19 18

Classic Melbourne early Autumn weather, clear blue skies, not a breath of wind. Gorgeous days....in many ways the best time of year. Alas it will be all too short, so will enjoy it while it's here.

Regards

Michael.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Miccles

[ariscott]

That is my favourite season in Melbourne, Michael!! Enjoy the short autumn before winter kicks in... I really miss the autumn colour...

Regards, Ari

[tropicbreeze]

The weather has taken a few interesting turns. Yesterday managed to get a few breezes, bit different to the day before when the highest gust was 1.6 KPH. Also yesterday some storm fronts started moving across, late afternoon. The first missed me to the north mainly. The second missed to the south. But early hours this morning another that passed through dropped just over 30mm rain at the BOM weather station only 5 KMS from here. My place only got 2.4mm. Oh well, that's the luck of the game.

On the wider scene, the two systems I mentioned a couple of days ago have developed into cyclones, TC Ului Cat 3 to the west, and TC Tomas Cat 2 to the east. Both are intensifying. Tomas, heading just east of south, is expected to start passing through the Fiji Islands tomorrow as a Cat 4 passing close to Suva.

TC Ului is further west and tracking slightly northwards. It's being pushed up by that pressure ridge heating up Perth. As that high ridge moves onwards the cyclone will slow and move more southwards. Steering will become weak so it could drift a while. It's expected to be a Cat 5 by then. Not clear whether it will reach mainland Australia yet.

[ariscott]

Man... I was sure you would get some out of the one this morning, Zig... We get about 20mm. Not bad!! What are you up to today??

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Much cooler today and humid. Only getting to 30C with a chance of a shower. I lost one of my Madfox seedlings lastnight. Died just like that. It must have been the 29C min and then a 41C day, although where it was wouldn't have seen low humidity or that 41C max. It hasn't really been tropical mountain weather here lately.

A cyclone has formed off the NE coast of QLD too. Maybe the monsoon will come back to Oz after all.

Best regards

Tyrone

41C\ 105F is very hot, not unlike autumn in SoCal but a minimum of 29C\ 84F is quite rare except in some particularly windy foothill locales. Minimums in the 80's\ 27-32C do occur in the desert east of Los Angeles. How far is the desert from Perth? In nasty humidity [ie. July 2006] very warm minimums spread to the coast. It's no wonder archontophoenix look their worst after summer.

29C min is a record for Perth at any time of year. This summer we've had 9 days over 40C and many just shy of it. We had a stretch of 3 in a row around 41-43C in January. The usual summer average is two days above 40C.

To answer your question, it depends what you call desert. To the east of us over the Darling Ranges is the wheatbelt which goes inland for 300km (200miles) so certainly dry but not desert. After that it turns to scrub. Further north along the coast the rainfall drops to 300mm/year (12 inches) about 400km north (250miles) The actual arid zone starts roughly where the wheatbelt ends, so north that would be about 500km (300miles) and east 300km (200miles). Once you get 800km north (500miles) you are lucky if any vegetation is more than 12 inches high, unless it's along a creek line where big trees grow. Those areas are few and far between. So Perth is still a bit of a hike from the actual desert.

Yesterday it reached 32C even though the sky was blanketed in thick cloud. But it was still and we got some heavy drops of rain that evaporated just as quickly, but it made everything really thick and humid. It actually was pleasant going for a walk at sunset in the rain. Blue sky today after a humid min of 22C and going for 29C. It's also very still.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Tyrone]

Forecast for the next week down here.

Day: Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa

Max: 26 27 28 28 26 28 27 ( Deg C)

Min: 15 16 17 18 18 19 18

Classic Melbourne early Autumn weather, clear blue skies, not a breath of wind. Gorgeous days....in many ways the best time of year. Alas it will be all too short, so will enjoy it while it's here.

Regards

Michael.

Good weather coming your way Michael.

It's around 28C outside now with 20C dewpoints and I just can't be bothered working in it.

Here's the forecast for here. Cooling off a bit here before warming up a bit. I don't mind, as my mountain species are starting to stress from all this heat. I lost a Madfox, my D baronii's are stressing, and I want my Ceroxylon's and Dictyocaryum seeds to come up, but they've been kept inside out of the heat until today. Hopefully my one little Ptychococcus lepidotus will kick on in autumn in his new pot.

Forecast for Sunday

Humid and partly cloudy. Light to moderate SW'ly winds.

Precis: Humid, partly cloudy.

City: Max 29

Mandurah: Max 27

UV Alert: 9:10 am to 3:40 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 9 [Very High]

Fire Danger: Coastal Plain: HIGH

Hills: HIGH

Forecast for Monday

Cloudy periods. Light to moderate SW'ly winds, freshening during the afternoon.

Precis: Cloudy periods.

City: Min 18 Max 26

Mandurah: Min 18 Max 24

Tuesday Partly cloudy. Min 15 Max 25

Wednesday Sunny. Min 13 Max 27

Thursday Sunny. Min 15 Max 29

Friday Sunny. Min 16 Max 30

Saturday Sunny. Min 18 Max 32

[tropicbreeze]

Ari, when I got up it was drizzling. Checked the weather because I need to do spraying. When I saw it looked like nothing more than humidity, cloud and no rain for the rest of the day I got stuck into the spraying and some slashing. Then, lo and behold, it looked like rain might develop so I headed back to the house. Got some light rain. The later spraying had about an hour or so before the rain , and the rain was light (only 2mm total). So I'm hoping it'll take. Will see in a fortnight.

The way this rain is moving now suggests a low pressure may be developing to our west. That'd go well for our 'reluctant monsoon'. The MJO has just gone crazy. it's not going to help us any time soon.

Out in the Pacific/Coral Sea it's hotting up a bit. TC Tomas is now Cat 3 and looks like making a direct hit on Labasa, Fiji, as a Cat 4, around middle of the day tomorrow (their time).

TC Ului is now a Cat 5 and still tracking slightly northwards. Could make it to around the middle of the Coral Sea before turning southwards. Looking less likely to make it to the Australian mainland. But ...... as with all cyclones, you can never be sure. I still think New Caledonia might be in store for an unpleasant visit.

[ariscott]

Well... if Ului goes south... there goes our weather . I guess we shall see what happens...

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Ari and tropicbreeze. Your monsoon has been a real non event lately. I think the weather for the next few months is going to be totally unpredictable. The east coast has had record rain through an El Nino event????????, the monsoon has died early, the west coast has baked with record heat and without any real rain events, and huge highs are already forming in the Bight with isobars way up into the NT. Nothing seems to make much sense.

Tyrone

[ariscott]

We got about 20mm tonight, Tyrone... Can't complain!! We don't really need that big numbers anyway. As long as I get 10-20mm every second day, I am happy!! Hopefully we will still get monsoon at the end of the month.. otherwise afternoon storm is fine. It is when the cyclone or tropical low drags everything south, that we miss out. Although a lot of weather nut up here are a bit sceptical about the monsoon. So, we shall wait and see.. this is a weird season for sure...

Our rainfall is still above average though, so we are not doing too badly!!

Regards, Ari

[tropicbreeze]

Maybe if the highs keep real high up on the continent we won't get so much of the south easterlies during the dry season. Don't know what it'd do to the rest of the weather. They're almost in a winter pattern now. Theoretically they should get higher in the winter. But I don't want another late fire season like last year, that was the pits.

All I got out of this afternoon's rain was 3mm. But there was a lot more wind around. The monsoon trough is currently through Sumatra, above Java and Timor, across the bottom of PNG and linking into TC Ului.

TC Ului should be moving into the Australian monitoring zone tomorrow morning so Brisbane TCWC should start showing it. It's reached its expected northern limit and over the next couple of days should head slightly south of west. Also expected to reach its peak strength tomorrow night. From there on it should weaken as it starts to turn more southerly.

This morning sustained wind speed for TC Ului (1 minute average) was 140 knots (259 KPH, 161 MPH). Gusts to 170 knots (315 KPH, 196 MPH).

[Cycadcenter]

Here is one model from the US Navy tracking of TC Ului.

Looks as though it may cross around Bundy near us at Childers.

http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-ph/RSS/jtwc/warnings/sh2010.gif

[Tyrone]

"Maybe if the highs keep real high up on the continent we won't get so much of the south easterlies during the dry season. Don't know what it'd do to the rest of the weather. They're almost in a winter pattern now. Theoretically they should get higher in the winter. But I don't want another late fire season like last year, that was the pits."

If the subtropical ridge( high pressure tracks) moved a long way north, the west coast will be beaten up by Antarctica in winter, which means wild winds, lots of rain, warm nights and cool to cold days with very little sun. If it's to the south of Perth, we get sunny winter days, little wind, and some radiational cooling, but if the sub tropical ridge sits on top of us, we get balmy dead still days, no rain, warm fullsun days, and cold radiational situations at night. If we have a slow start to our winter rains the south coast has warmer nights than us due to our lack of cloud cover. I hate that time of year. The subtropical ridge can sit to the south or north of us, but not over us. The winter is going to be totally controlled by the behaviour of the subtropical ridge.

Best regards

Tyrone

[tropicbreeze]

Tyrone, you could find yourself back in the Roaring 40's. At least it'd be wetter. Check out where you can get some Nothofagus, should make a good wind break. Do you also follow the effects of the jet stream?

Some uncertainty where TC Ului will end up in the long run. Lot depends on how soon a new ridge develops after the current one moves off the scene. As it moves further south it's going to come under increasingly high wind shear. In the next 5 days it's expected to have weakened to a high end Cat 2 and be close to moving out of tropical waters. The water is still warm there but wind shear is very high.

Here it's pretty well back to wet season feel. Little or no wind, fair amount of cloud, no rain (at the moment), and middle of day temp only 30C, RH 75%. And, for what it's worth, the MJO seems to have developed an aversion to the Indian Ocean.

[The Palm Nut]

Rain, rain and more rain! Temp 24C and yes its overcast. Great palm growing this year, unfortunatly lots of mozzies.

Mike

[Jonathan]

Nights are starting to cool off a bit now down here on the island.

Day temps still very nice, today about 27C and breathless, still about 20 outside - unusual for Tas. in autumn.

LHI palms, ceroxylon, etc will start to take off again now after sulking over summer.

Forecast for Tuesday :

Fine and partly cloudy. Light winds and an afternoon sea breeze, tending light to moderate northerly late in the evening.

Precis Fine. Min 15 Max 24

UV Alert: 10:40 am to 4:00 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 5 [Moderate]

Wednesday Afternoon showers. Min 15 Max 25

Thursday Fine. Min 13 Max 23

Friday Morning shower or two. Min 13 Max 23

Saturday A few showers. Min 12 Max 19

Sunday Becoming fine. Min 10 Max 18

Monday Showers developing. Min 11 Max 22

Looks pretty nice to me!

Cheers,

Jonathan

[amazondk]

It is interesting that this thread has turned into and Australian weather thread. I thought from the title that it was intended for all. Maybe the Floridians are still in shock from the cold weather. It would be nice if people from all over contributed showing the global contrasts of what is happening in one place.

Here on the South American Equator it has been raining a little less. Even though March traditionally is the wettest month.

Here are the current conditions today.

Manaus, AM, Brazil 0709 Manaus time

Humidity 94 % Cloud Cover 85 %

Visibility 16 km Max Temp. 35 °C

Dewpoint 25 °C Min Temp. 26 °C

Ceiling 8,991.6 m Departure -2 °C

Apparent Temp. 29 °C High Past 6 Hrs. 27 °C

Wind Chill 26 °C Low Past 6 Hrs. 26 °C

Wind Speed 8 km/h Precip Past 3 Hrs. 0.0 mm

Wind Direction E Precip Past 6 Hrs. 0.0 mm

Wind Gusts 8 km/h Precip Past 24 Hrs. 0.3 mm

Pressure 101 KPA Pressure Tendency Rising

And here is the picture of weather over our continent right now. I am in the middle under the clouds.

[Tyrone]

Gotta love your weather Don. No one can get closer to the equator than you.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Tyrone]

"Tyrone, you could find yourself back in the Roaring 40's. At least it'd be wetter. Check out where you can get some Nothofagus, should make a good wind break. Do you also follow the effects of the jet stream?"

If we get roaring forties weather, everyone in Oz including Darwin is in serious trouble this winter. That means the belts have moved 1000km further north than normal. Alice Springs will freeze, literally being directly under the subtropical ridge. As inland Australia got colder and colder if for what ever reason a southerly blew into Darwin then BRRRRRRRRRRRR. Broome would be getting cold fronts!!!!!!!! I hope that never happens!!!!. I doubt it will, but who knows after what happened to sunny warm Florida recently.

I already have my garden bounded by giant bamboo which will break the most of the winds.

I've never really looked at the jet stream. Where can I look at that?

Best regards

Tyrone

[Daryl]

Don, maybe everyone in the northern hemisphere has had enough of the weather! I'd be pretty down about it after going through a winter like that. Meanwhile, dwn here we have had a great summer, so we can't stop talking about it

Can't complain about the forecast for here...just nice comfortable temperatures...

Forecast for Tuesday

A shower or two. Moderate SE winds.

Precis: Shower or two

City: Min 20 Max 28

Bayside: Min 20 Max 27

UV Alert: 8:20 am to 3:30 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 11 [Extreme]

Wednesday Shower or two. Min 20 Max 28

Thursday Shower or two. Min 21 Max 28

Friday Shower or two. Min 21 Max 28

Saturday Mostly fine. Min 21 Max 29

Sunday Mostly fine. Min 21 Max 29

Monday Shower or two. Min 21 Max 28

[ariscott]

If we get roaring forties weather, everyone in Oz including Darwin is in serious trouble this winter. That means the belts have moved 1000km further north than normal. Alice Springs will freeze, literally being directly under the subtropical ridge. As inland Australia got colder and colder if for what ever reason a southerly blew into Darwin then BRRRRRRRRRRRR. Broome would be getting cold fronts!!!!!!!! I hope that never happens!!!!. I doubt it will, but who knows after what happened to sunny warm Florida recently.

Man... 8 deg was cold enough... I hope it stays that way...

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

We're going through a cool spell at the moment compared to the heat of late. It went down to 17.5C lastnight and it actually felt chilly. My wife said she was cold. What's happened to us???? Winter's going to be hell.

Here's the forecast. Still no rain.

Forecast for Tuesday

Some early morning cloud followed by a mostly sunny day. Moderate S/SE winds

becoming moderate to fresh S/SW'ly in the afternoon.

Precis: Mostly sunny.

City: Max 25

Mandurah: Max 25

UV Alert: 9:10 am to 3:40 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 8 [Very High]

Fire Danger: Coastal Plain: HIGH

Hills: HIGH

Wednesday Sunny. Min 13 Max 29

Thursday Sunny. Min 15 Max 30

Friday Partly cloudy. Min 16 Max 30

Saturday Sunny. Min 17 Max 31

Sunday Sunny. Min 17 Max 33

Monday Partly cloudy. Min 18 Max 32

Best regards

Tyrone

[Jonathan]

Tyrone - you've become weak - thats whats happened to you!

Whats wrong with the Roaring 40's anyway? Some of us live in that vicinity....

Don - the reason this has become an Australian thread is that our weather is better!

(I am of course joking - Tasmanians rarely boast about the weather, or at least shouldn't...though its lovely at the moment)

Cheers,

Jonathan

[Tyrone]

Yes, we've become weak. So much so, that we're calling normal summer mins "cold" in autumn!!!!

It's a balmy 24C at the moment and it's just nice to not have to step out of air conditioning into a brickwall of savage heat. The breeze even has a coolish element to it, which is kind of strange.

Best regards

Tyrone

[happ]

Tyrone - you've become weak - thats whats happened to you!

Whats wrong with the Roaring 40's anyway? Some of us live in that vicinity....

Don - the reason this has become an Australian thread is that our weather is better!(I am of course joking - Tasmanians rarely boast about the weather, or at least shouldn't...though its lovely at the moment)

Cheers,

Jonathan

You may be right. America is just now coming out of winter & it has been a very cold & damaging season in parts of the U.S. March is generally cool in California though not as cold as winter. But all the yellowing of certain palms are quite evident during March. It takes a few more months for real growth to start up again. Today was a warm 84F\ 28.8C & the first time maximums have been above 26.6 for a month. It will take until June for 28.8C to become normal.

[amazondk]

Happ,

Thanks for the post. It is nice to see some input from North America.

dk

[tropicbreeze]

Tyrone, This is a site that shows the southern hemisphere jetstream:

http://squall.sfsu.edu/gif/jetstream_sohem_00.gif

The jetstream (northern hemisphere) was implicated in the freeze down the east coast USA, and the warmer weather in Alaska and Canada.

[Exotic Life]

Look like spring is finally come to visit me! After a long time with cold during the days and nights with sometimes below average for days it's going to be much above the average the next few days. Thanks! I need it, with some sunshine it could be very fast green everywhere now in about a week...

Forecast for today 11C/51.8F after a low from 6C/42.8F.

Normal average.

Day: 9C/48.2F

Night: 3C/37.4F

Forecast. 17 March.

Day: 14C/57.2F

Night: 3C/37.4F

Forecast. 18 March.

Day: 16C/60.8F

Night: 4C/39.2F

Forecast. 19 March.

Day: 17C/62.2F

Night: 8C/46.4F

Forecast. 20 March.

Day: 16C/60.8F

Night: 5C/41.0F

Forecast. 21 March.

Day: 16C/60.8F

Night: 8C/46.4F

Mostly sunny with sometimes some clouds but dry.

Robbin

[happ]

Today was as warm as it has been nearly all winter & some stations reported the warmest temps since November. 88F\ 31.8C here & also downtown LA. Some areas exceeded 90F\ 32.2C due to warm "santa ana" winds & longer daylight.

[Tyrone]

Great to hear that it's finally warming up decently for you Happ.

Best regards

Tyrone

[gsn]

Today was as warm as it has been nearly all winter & some stations reported the warmest temps since November. 88F\ 31.8C here & also downtown LA. Some areas exceeded 90F\ 32.2C due to warm "santa ana" winds & longer daylight.

That is pretty warm ,we haven't hit 80 here in central Florida for ages!

By the way, why is there longer daylight?

[ariscott]

Hello... dry weather... well, at least for the next week... The hit and miss storm is going to be MORE hit and miss... Time to get the irrigation all sorted this week.

Regards, Ari

[happ]

29C min is a record for Perth at any time of year. This summer we've had 9 days over 40C and many just shy of it. We had a stretch of 3 in a row around 41-43C in January. The usual summer average is two days above 40C.

To answer your question, it depends what you call desert. To the east of us over the Darling Ranges is the wheatbelt which goes inland for 300km (200miles) so certainly dry but not desert. After that it turns to scrub. Further north along the coast the rainfall drops to 300mm/year (12 inches) about 400km north (250miles) The actual arid zone starts roughly where the wheatbelt ends, so north that would be about 500km (300miles) and east 300km (200miles). Once you get 800km north (500miles) you are lucky if any vegetation is more than 12 inches high, unless it's along a creek line where big trees grow. Those areas are few and far between. So Perth is still a bit of a hike from the actual desert.

Yesterday it reached 32C even though the sky was blanketed in thick cloud. But it was still and we got some heavy drops of rain that evaporated just as quickly, but it made everything really thick and humid. It actually was pleasant going for a walk at sunset in the rain. Blue sky today after a humid min of 22C and going for 29C. It's also very still.

Best regards

Tyrone

I somehow missed this response, Tyrone. Thanks for the info. Looking at the map I noticed extensive countryside with lakes between Perth and the Great Victoria Desert. What is the elevation of the Darling Range? Are there strong winds thru passes in the mountains particularly off shore wind? In Los Angeles area the mountains run west to east. The high desert Mojave is north of LA about 50 miles\ 80+ km. Under 10 inches\ 254mm yearly rainfall. There are a series of long wide valleys both northwest and east of Los Angeles for up to 100 miles\ 160km that allows for pronounced diurnal air flow. Generally between 15-20"\ 380-508mm rainfall mostly between November & March. I believe it is drier here than Perth [less summer humidity & strong dry winds during fall & winter].

Quite summer-like currently. Minimum: 61F\ 16.1C & warming fast. 73F\ 22.7C @ 1030

Edited March 17, 2010 by happ

[Tyrone]

29C min is a record for Perth at any time of year. This summer we've had 9 days over 40C and many just shy of it. We had a stretch of 3 in a row around 41-43C in January. The usual summer average is two days above 40C.

To answer your question, it depends what you call desert. To the east of us over the Darling Ranges is the wheatbelt which goes inland for 300km (200miles) so certainly dry but not desert. After that it turns to scrub. Further north along the coast the rainfall drops to 300mm/year (12 inches) about 400km north (250miles) The actual arid zone starts roughly where the wheatbelt ends, so north that would be about 500km (300miles) and east 300km (200miles). Once you get 800km north (500miles) you are lucky if any vegetation is more than 12 inches high, unless it's along a creek line where big trees grow. Those areas are few and far between. So Perth is still a bit of a hike from the actual desert.

Yesterday it reached 32C even though the sky was blanketed in thick cloud. But it was still and we got some heavy drops of rain that evaporated just as quickly, but it made everything really thick and humid. It actually was pleasant going for a walk at sunset in the rain. Blue sky today after a humid min of 22C and going for 29C. It's also very still.

Best regards

Tyrone

I somehow missed this response, Tyrone. Thanks for the info. Looking at the map I noticed extensive countryside with lakes between Perth and the Great Victoria Desert. What is the elevation of the Darling Range? Are there strong winds thru passes in the mountains particularly off shore wind? In Los Angeles area the mountains run west to east. The high desert Mojave is north of LA about 50 miles\ 80+ km. Under 10 inches\ 254mm yearly rainfall. There are a series of long wide valleys both northwest and east of Los Angeles for up to 100 miles\ 160km that allows for pronounced diurnal air flow. Generally between 15-20"\ 380-508mm rainfall mostly between November & March. I believe it is drier here than Perth [less summer humidity & strong dry winds during fall & winter].

Quite summer-like currently. Minimum: 61F\ 16.1C & warming fast. 73F\ 22.7C @ 1030

The Great Victoria Desert is around 700-800km (430-500miles) east of my area and averages 200-250mm (8 - 10 inches) of rain a year. Maps of Australia and especially West Australia can be very deceiving when it comes to lakes and rivers. There are heaps of them out there, BUT, they're almost always dry or if they have water are saltier than the sea. They only fill up when decaying cyclones fly through and dump their load.

The Darling Ranges are an ancient mountain range which has been worn down over millions of years and really exist on the edge of the Great Australian Plateau in WA. They average about 300-400m asl, but would have been much higher when they were formed. The West Coast of Oz used to have a wet tropical subtropical climate back then. That was in the time when even inland Australia was wet tropical, and ferns and Lepidozamia cycads grew on Antarctica. WA has probably seen the longest time on Earth without any volcanic activity, with some saying that the oldest geographical features exist in SW Oz. So it's a place where the soils have been leached out and very little nutrient is left in the soils.

There are no deep canyons in the Darling ranges and because they are only 300-400m high, even if they did have deep east-west canyons it probably wouldn't be strong enough here to create off shore winds. There are of course gullies and valleys, and there are very strong catabatic winds that amplify the easterlies we get if you are within a few kms of the Ranges. At the palm nursery I sometimes work at, they get very strong easterlies as they are within 4km of the base of the ranges. Every day you have to pick everything off of the ground, whereas at my place another 8km closer to the ocean I don't get more than 1/3 of the bad winds you get closer to the hills.

Perth's climate varies substantially across the metro area. Perth itself is 20km (12miles) inland from the ocean on the Swan River. Closer to the coast like Fremantle which is on the coast you get strong seabreezes but generally weaker easterlies. High temps are less likely in summer and humidity is always higher. Back to my area 20km inland and I'm much hotter than the coast, generally always get easterlies and may not get a seabreeze. My humidity is generally lower, but I escape the full brunt of the seabreezes and the full brunt of the easterlies. At the base of the hills it's very hot in summer, drier again, and frequently without seabreezes, with very strong easterlies. In winter inland is coldest, yet warms up a bit higher than the coast, whereas the coast will stay cooler during the day due to the extra cloud cover and prevailing sea breezes, yet will never see frost at night as it's too windy and the ocean is too warm. I think Fremantle has never gone below 3C (37F). But when the cold fronts hit the coast, they thrash it. By the time they hit my area they've lost their edge. Roofs often get ripped off coastal houses every winter, and we've even had tornadoes come ashore with cold fronts destroying houses.

Perth is wetter than LA or San Diego. We average around 180-130mm a month from June to August and 869mm a year. We do get the strong dry winds in autumn and spring, but also in summer, but in Feb they tend to die out a bit especially if we get some tropical lows. Then it gets very still and sticky.

So there are some distinct similarities between our locations, but some differences by the sounds of it.

I'm glad to see some warmer weather has come your way. It may be a very hot one this year if our experience is anything to go by.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Tyrone]

I sure hope we get those thunderstorms over the next few days. We're around 120 days without rain which has smashed the previous record of 83 days.

Forecast for Sunday

The chance of an afternoon and evening thunderstorm. Moderate E/SE winds

shifting moderate S/SW'ly near the coast in the afternoon.

Precis: Afternoon thunderstorm.

City: Max 31

Mandurah: Max 31

UV Alert: 9:10 am to 3:40 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 8 [Very High]

Fire Danger: Coastal Plain: HIGH

Hills: HIGH

Forecast for Monday

A few showers with the chance of a thunderstorm. Moderate to fresh E/NE winds,

easing during the morning and shifting moderate W/SW'ly near the coast.

Precis: Few showers, possible thunderstorm.

City: Min 20 Max 30

Mandurah: Min 20 Max 29

Tuesday Possible morning thunderstorm. Min 20 Max 33

Wednesday Morning cloud. Min 19 Max 29

Thursday Mostly sunny. Min 18 Max 30

Friday Mostly sunny. Min 18 Max 31

Saturday Mostly sunny. Min 20 Max 27

Best regards

Tyrone