Current weather obs

[brumby33]

I mean it's a huge coast line so why Sydney?

I think that is partly just due to observer perspective. I mean that you're more likely to take note of the rainfall if you're the one getting hammered by it.

Not denying that we've had a extraordinary amount of rain on the east coast here over the past 3 years, and it has indeed impacted Sydney a lot, but many of these events have also been concentrated more on other areas than Sydney. The event we had a few weeks ago impacted the Hunter area significantly more than Sydney, and the most recent (current) one is impacting the south coast a lot more than Sydney. Yes there are a few places in Sydney's SW that have gotten up around 120mm over a few days, but most of Sydney is only up around 50mm cumulative so far. Wollongong to Jervis Bay however have many places that have recorded nearly 200mm over the past few days with the rain still falling.

Yeah it just seems that Sydney has been getting a lot of slow moving weather systems for some time, you look at the BOM radar and it's all clear till you see a huge blue blob over Sydney basin lol.
I'll never forget 2015 when we had our annual Suzuki V-Strom Motorcycle Gathering at Gloucestor and it was a total wash-out. There was also a big motorcycle event at the showground that weekend as well and the ground were basically a lake so of course it was cancelled......so....what else to do....it was wet outside so we stayed at the Pub and got wet inside It was very social if nothing else.

I've been down here in Albury now for the past 18 Months and this past Autumn has been absolutely glorious.....it's a special time down this way, mornings are quite fresh 2-5C but the days are still in their 15-19C bracket. Bit of a change coming next week with tops of 13C...oh well...we need a bit of rain now...it's still very dry.

[Andy01]

Should have probably dug out some winter gear for my ride this morning.

8 degrees, 12km/hr westerly. For us soft Brisbane guys that was pretty nasty.

My bike computer was reading 6° for most of my ride yesterday. Chilly. A beautiful sunny day though - as per most of the past week and next week.

[elantra]

Should have probably dug out some winter gear for my ride this morning.

8 degrees, 12km/hr westerly. For us soft Brisbane guys that was pretty nasty.

The other night on free to air TV there was a somewhat frivolous story about the current Brisbane “cold spell”

Nah what nonsense - they said 8 degrees was unusually cold in the “Sunshine State”
In general In EVERY winter the minimum morning temperature in Brisbane will be down to 6 degrees.
And of course colder in the western suburbs - and down to zero in Ipswich.

Even way up north in the tropics you can get cold mornings.
I have lived (briefly) in Townsville and Ingham and recall morning temperatures down to 7 degrees.
West of Cairns is the township of Herberton.
Famous as the most northerly place in Australia to have recorded snowfall !
Admittedly it is also one of the highest towns in Australia (above sea level)

Everyone moans about the Melbourne weather but I believe that Melbourne City has never had a recorded snowfall in the last 200 years.

[Duck!]

Everyone moans about the Melbourne weather but I believe that Melbourne City has never had a recorded snowfall in the last 200 years.

Not sure about the City centre proper, but the broader Melbourne metro area has definitely experienced snowfall within my lifetime. I've lived my entire life in the outer Bayside suburbs, only a few metres above sea level, and had snow a couple of times. Although infrequent and unusual, snowfalls on surrounding nearby hills are not that uncommon.

[DavidS]

Everyone moans about the Melbourne weather but I believe that Melbourne City has never had a recorded snowfall in the last 200 years.

Not sure about the City centre proper, but the broader Melbourne metro area has definitely experienced snowfall within my lifetime. I've lived my entire life in the outer Bayside suburbs, only a few metres above sea level, and had snow a couple of times. Although infrequent and unusual, snowfalls on surrounding nearby hills are not that uncommon.

Snow in Melbourne is very rare. Not sure about the city, But I remember a day in the 1980s where it snowed at Monash Uni and the snow did not melt the second it hit the ground. That is the worst I have seen in 50 years in Melbourne. Very unusual weather, it was cold and that was added to by strong winds from the Antarctic.

I'd have to say the mornings were colder when I was a kid. 2 degree mornings were more common but lower than that was quite rare.

DS

[Duck!]

I reckon we're thinking of the same day in 1986 - I can't recall the date, but I know the year from which side of the school block the classroom I was in was located, and it was a Friday, 'cos mum was doing the weekly shopping; she stepped out of the Frozen Stuff shop, which by its nature was always cold, and noted that it was even colder outside!

Coincidentally, just a few years earlier I was in another classroom on the same side of the school block when the massive dust storm that preceded the Ash Wednesday fires rolled through!

[warthog1]

Ditto on that dust cloud. I went to a church of England secondary school. Was in Religious instruction, or whatever the class was called, as we watched the great wall of dust, that heralded the apocalypse, approach.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Me ... the%20city).

[g-boaf]

I remember when Sydney was engulfed in one - my office carpet went red with the dirt all over the place.

Never seen anything like it since.

[Arbuckle23]

I reckon we're thinking of the same day in 1986 -

I think you are right with the year. I was driving to a job up in Reservoir and the roads had a few mm of snow sitting on the side and mushy brown slush in the middle.

[DavidS]

Ditto on that dust cloud. I went to a church of England secondary school. Was in Religious instruction, or whatever the class was called, as we watched the great wall of dust, that heralded the apocalypse, approach.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Me ... the%20city).

That video was a bit over-dramatic, but the dust storm was pretty stunning.

I was out the front of a mate's place in Barkly St StKilda and you could literally see the storm roll over the hill and along Barkly St, it just came at you like a wall of dust.

DS

[zebee]

I remember my mother saying that "brickdusters" were common in Melbourne before the war.

No idea why (or if...) they stopped happening.

[Duck!]

Winter is sinking its teeth into Melbourne.... The last few days, and the next few coming are representing the stereotyped dreary Melbourne weather of low- to mid-teens daytime temperatures, generally overcast and a fair few wet days. Not the insane NSW-type drenchings we've had an unusual number of over the past few years, but more typical light but constant falls.

It's getting windier too... May turned out to be an uncharacteristically long Autumn tail-end, with often mild days, markedly divided by very cold nights (including a couple of frosts in some outer areas) thanks to still and clear conditions. But the seasonally-prevalent N-NW winds are kicking in, and when they do, they blow like stink!

[Duck!]

I remember my mother saying that "brickdusters" were common in Melbourne before the war.

No idea why (or if...) they stopped happening.

I've never heard the term "Brickduster" in Melbourne, even though I've lived my whole life here, but have heard/read the similar term "Brickyarder" from Sydney that was applied to the same type of weather system.

My only surmise is that prior to WW2, the region that now encompasses Port Melbourne, Fishermans Bend and parts of West Melbourne, Footscray and Yarraville was basically a swamp where all the nasty industries, including brickyards among others got shunted to. When a summer cold front blasted up the bay, it'd pick the nasties up and blow them into the more "civilised" parts of town.

After the war a lot of the area was rezoned for housing, thus shifting the mucky industries elsewhere, so although we still get the cold fronts, no more brick dust blown through the city, therefore no more Brickdusters, at least in name.

PS: a little bit of statistical irony....: although Melbourne on average experiences more wet weather days than most other State capitals, the volume of rain is generally quite low, so in terms of total annual rainfall, we're actually one of the driest capital cities in the country!

[Andy01]

Brisbane was a little chilly this morning with my bike computer hitting 3° at about 7:30am.

Fantastic weather though - today was our 12th straight cloudless day. The solar is loving it - for the short winter days.

[warthog1]

Been overcast here last few days. Managed to get a couple of rides in though. Just well clothed as it hasn't been warm and the cold doesn't get more enjoyable year on year.
Didn't know it got that cold in Brisbane!

[Duck!]

It seems rather odd and I'm no weather scientist but it's weird that like the last 3 years since the rain event during covid and beyond and even more increasing is that in Sydney, the low pressure systems that keep the weather and rain systems hanging around the Sydney basin for a long time without moving. I mean it's a huge coast line so why Sydney? Why does it move so slow?

I lived in Sydney most of my last 38 years with a few years outside but not far away (Newcastle) bit it's Sydney that cops it big time all the time, I've never known a period that Sydney is wet so much over a long period.

So much for the phrase...."Sunny Sydney" lol

Been stewing on this one for the past few days..... Basically, Sydney lies at the perfect latitude and location to be in the convergence zone between two large-scale weather system tracks. First there is the East Australian Current that flows southward along the coast, bringing warm water from the tropics. This warm water generates low air pressure systems, which become more pronounced as it travels south and meets cooler air.

At the same time, the conveyor belt that is the Southern Ocean propels big weather systems from the west along the southern coast. Cool, dense air forms a slow-moving belt of high pressure that particularly in Autumn sits very snugly on the southern regions. This high pressure belt meets the low pressure tracking down the east coast and stops it moving any further, and being slow-moving, doesn't move the low pressure out into the Tasman Sea in any great hurry, so the low just sits there drawing water from the ocean then chucking it down when it can't hold any more. Sydney is square in the firing line.

[brumby33]

It seems rather odd and I'm no weather scientist but it's weird that like the last 3 years since the rain event during covid and beyond and even more increasing is that in Sydney, the low pressure systems that keep the weather and rain systems hanging around the Sydney basin for a long time without moving. I mean it's a huge coast line so why Sydney? Why does it move so slow?

I lived in Sydney most of my last 38 years with a few years outside but not far away (Newcastle) bit it's Sydney that cops it big time all the time, I've never known a period that Sydney is wet so much over a long period.

So much for the phrase...."Sunny Sydney" lol

Been stewing on this one for the past few days..... Basically, Sydney lies at the perfect latitude and location to be in the convergence zone between two large-scale weather system tracks. First there is the East Australian Current that flows southward along the coast, bringing warm water from the tropics. This warm water generates low air pressure systems, which become more pronounced as it travels south and meets cooler air.

At the same time, the conveyor belt that is the Southern Ocean propels big weather systems from the west along the southern coast. Cool, dense air forms a slow-moving belt of high pressure that particularly in Autumn sits very snugly on the southern regions. This high pressure belt meets the low pressure tracking down the east coast and stops it moving any further, and being slow-moving, doesn't move the low pressure out into the Tasman Sea in any great hurry, so the low just sits there drawing water from the ocean then chucking it down when it can't hold any more. Sydney is square in the firing line.

Yeah Duck, that seems to be a pretty good explanation on that and over the past 4 years when the weather changed to a big wet in the March and onwards, the Indian Ocean Dipole played a big part on how the La-Nina at the time which lasted at least 2 years played out.
I don't believe this entire climate change thing or the reasons behind it eg: carbon etc but I believe in the relatively short average of 80 years of an average person lifespan, we are going to see some kind of change in weather patterns than the normal, in fact I think apart from divine interference, I think the weather systems are trying to come back to some kind of normal, like the very hot dry summers that are well known down this 5way (Riverina) yet not too far from here, there's been 3 lots of flooding since 2002 in North Victoria, Up Near Windsor around Windsor...(the new Bridge at Windsor that was never supposed to go underwater had done so 3 times already since 2020.
It did do one major thing and that is completely fill all our dams that they've overflowed often, Warrangamba Dam was only about 38% during the 2019/20 Bushfire period, then within 2 weeks of solid rain, it went up to 80% in a very short period of time....that was remarkable. So from Northern Qld down to Victoria, pretty much all dams are very well full up.
It could be....that Sydney is simply stuck in a basin and the plug gets stuck and it overflows

[elantra]

Been overcast here last few days. Managed to get a couple of rides in though. Just well clothed as it hasn't been warm and the cold doesn't get more enjoyable year on year.
Didn't know it got that cold in Brisbane!

“Didn’t know it got that cold in Brisbane ”

“Cold” in Brisbane is not the same as “Cold” in Bendigo

Brisbane is I believe one of the biggest Local Government area cities in Australia.
The bayside suburbs like Wynnum and Redlands are by the sea and only rarely drop below 8 degrees C.
It’s a different story in the green leafy gullies in outer suburban Brookfield and Pullenvale etc where temps as low a 3 degrees C are not unheard of.

I used to live in the inner-western suburbs.
Yeah, each winter you would get several mornings down to 6 degrees.
It’s only a problem for working people who have to get out of bed at 0-dark hundred hours.

Uni students get around the problem by just sleeping in and missing the first 2 or 3 morning lectures because by 11 am it’s 22 degrees C.

It can be a bit hard for cyclists though BUT do remember that there is a mountain only 5 km west of the CBD.
It’s called Mt Coottha although technically it isn’t quite high enough to be a mountain, it’s only 286 metres above sea level.
But climbing it certainly warms you up on a winter morning.
It’s fun descending as well.

[foo on patrol]

My mates and I were training in -c temps plenty of times with -6c in Ipswich and dropping to -9 at Peak crossing. My fingers were still burning 12hrs later and I had my moto gloves on.

Foo

[g-boaf]

Quite cold in Sydney today as well, didn't get much higher than mid-teens temperatures.

I'm WFH and keeping off my feet a bit so keeping the door shut and a Mac Pro with two screens works out to be a decent heater for the room.

[Duck!]

I don't believe this entire climate change thing or the reasons behind it..... (lots of snippage)

Climate Change is A Thing. 40-50 years ago when it was first being recognised as a bit of a problem, the focus was on rising average atmospheric temperature, hence the initial term "global warming". Although a lot of emphasis at the time was given to the prospect of melting ice caps and rising sea levels, little thought seemed to have been given to changes in ocean temperatures as a result; apparently the thought at the time is that given water is a lot more thermally stable than air, the influx of melting ice would just blend into the surrounding water, so overall it'd stay about the same temperature.

However, modern research paints a different picture. Consistently rising air temperature is leading to a corresponding rise in ocean temperatures from the tropics to the temperate zones. The predicted melting of the icecaps by contrast is reducing the water temperature in the sub-polar belts, thus creating a greater thermal gradient which alters oceanic currents and the weather systems they generate.

The result on a local basis isn't just being warmer, rather it's more frequent occurrences of what is commonly called "extreme" weather. which can include being unusually cold and/or wet for some places.

[warthog1]

Thanks Duck! I was biting my tongue. There is so much evidence supporting it. I worry about what the next generations will have to deal with


Overcast again here so far. The roads are dry though. Hope to get a ride in before slumping off to work again this arvo.

[g-boaf]

Now the topic is going to get a bit spicy.

[CmdrBiggles]

Now the topic is going to get a bit spicy.

Pass the popcorn...

[Mr Purple]

My mates and I were training in -c temps plenty of times with -6c in Ipswich and dropping to -9 at Peak crossing. My fingers were still burning 12hrs later and I had my moto gloves on.

Foo

Worst I've ever seen was -3c on the start line of the BVRT E2E last year; it hit zero at about 50km in.

Hard when it's for a race, because you know you're going to overheat at some stage so can't overdress too much.

Cold again this morning, compounded by the fact I couldn't do a Cootha Back because of RD issues. Ended up doing a fast uni loop as a way of keeping warm - 307W average along almost the entire Bicentennial. A few commuters got a free lift into work. First time this year I've had the sleeve and long fingered gloves out.