Current weather obs

[warthog1]

5C to start this mornings ride.
Nearly reached my hand and finger comfort limit.
Everything is sorted for cold weather riding, other than the hands. I have a collection of winter gloves, and none of them do the job when things drop down near (or below) zero.
Oh well, the crisp foggy mornings always precede a good fine, clear and calm day.

I get cold hands too. When I used to commute there were 0°c mornings on occasion. Aldi ski gloves did the job for me. Didn't look too stylish but stiff sh it. Warm hands more than made up for that. Shoe covers made of wet suit material sorted the toes.

Was bloody beautiful on the O'Keefe today around midday. Left the arm warmers at home. Jersey, undershirt and bibs was perfect

[g-boaf]

5C to start this mornings ride.
Nearly reached my hand and finger comfort limit.
Everything is sorted for cold weather riding, other than the hands. I have a collection of winter gloves, and none of them do the job when things drop down near (or below) zero.
Oh well, the crisp foggy mornings always precede a good fine, clear and calm day.

I have some Specialized winter gloves, they are very thick and keep hands warm in 0 degrees or less, even snowing.

But the problem is they are so bulky it’s hard to feel the brake levers or shifters.

You could always try thin gloves inside your winter ones, but then you might end up with sweaty hands.

For me the hardest thing is keeping my face warm. If I use balaclava then my glasses fog up! Grrr.

I have a lot of winter kit for riding in the mountains where it can be really cold at 2000m+ and then descents at high speed really make the chill factor even worse.

[brumby33]

Can I suggest to invest in a pair of Winter Motorcycle Gloves, I have some Dri-Rider Gloves I use for when i was riding my bicycle to work at 5am as well as a basic Balaclava to cover my face and clear safety glasses, the type you buy from Bunnings.
It goes down to about 3C where i was near Kingsgrove in Sydney in Mid July and the Motorcycle Gloves keeps my hands toasty warm and I can feel my gears and Brakes without a problem, even ring my bell if I have to and the Balaclava protects my face from the cold air. I also wore my yellow work rain jacket which was also good for keeping the cold wind out yet I didn't sweat much under it. Admittedly, I didn't have a long commute, only 5kms each way but that's enough time for one's hands to turn blue.

On a motorcycle you're going at traffic speed so hands need to be kept warm and dry at all times, on a bicycle, probably the only thing you need to be concerned about is the sweat but if it rains, the Dri-Rider gloves keep your hands very dry. I need some new ones soon but they still work well.

One thing i'd like to know is, those arm and leg warmer lycra sleeves, are they any good? do they keep you toasty warm at all. I've often thought of buying some but weren't sure how good they are. Are they easy to put on and take off when it gets warm enough?

cheers

brumby33

[warthog1]

Can I suggest to invest in a pair of Winter Motorcycle Gloves, I have some Dri-Rider Gloves I use for when i was riding my bicycle to work at 5am as well as a basic Balaclava to cover my face and clear safety glasses, the type you buy from Bunnings.
It goes down to about 3C where i was near Kingsgrove in Sydney in Mid July and the Motorcycle Gloves keeps my hands toasty warm and I can feel my gears and Brakes without a problem, even ring my bell if I have to and the Balaclava protects my face from the cold air. I also wore my yellow work rain jacket which was also good for keeping the cold wind out yet I didn't sweat much under it. Admittedly, I didn't have a long commute, only 5kms each way but that's enough time for one's hands to turn blue.

On a motorcycle you're going at traffic speed so hands need to be kept warm and dry at all times, on a bicycle, probably the only thing you need to be concerned about is the sweat but if it rains, the Dri-Rider gloves keep your hands very dry. I need some new ones soon but they still work well.

One thing i'd like to know is, those arm and leg warmer lycra sleeves, are they any good? do they keep you toasty warm at all. I've often thought of buying some but weren't sure how good they are. Are they easy to put on and take off when it gets warm enough?

cheers

brumby33

Leg warmers are fine for very cold. The legs are doing the work so generate alot of heat.
Arm warmers are only for ~8-20c for me. Yes they are good to remove if you get too warm, that is their big advantage.
It was about 18c when I left home today. Left the arm warmers at home.
8c and below I use a jacket and if colder a full sleeve undershirt. I have various jackets for different temps. A couple are good for zero and below with a good undershirt.

[brumby33]

Can I suggest to invest in a pair of Winter Motorcycle Gloves, I have some Dri-Rider Gloves I use for when i was riding my bicycle to work at 5am as well as a basic Balaclava to cover my face and clear safety glasses, the type you buy from Bunnings.
It goes down to about 3C where i was near Kingsgrove in Sydney in Mid July and the Motorcycle Gloves keeps my hands toasty warm and I can feel my gears and Brakes without a problem, even ring my bell if I have to and the Balaclava protects my face from the cold air. I also wore my yellow work rain jacket which was also good for keeping the cold wind out yet I didn't sweat much under it. Admittedly, I didn't have a long commute, only 5kms each way but that's enough time for one's hands to turn blue.

On a motorcycle you're going at traffic speed so hands need to be kept warm and dry at all times, on a bicycle, probably the only thing you need to be concerned about is the sweat but if it rains, the Dri-Rider gloves keep your hands very dry. I need some new ones soon but they still work well.

One thing i'd like to know is, those arm and leg warmer lycra sleeves, are they any good? do they keep you toasty warm at all. I've often thought of buying some but weren't sure how good they are. Are they easy to put on and take off when it gets warm enough?

cheers

brumby33

Leg warmers are fine for very cold. The legs are doing the work so generate alot of heat.
Arm warmers are only for ~8-20c for me. Yes they are good to remove if you get too warm, that is their big advantage.
It was about 18c when I left home today. Left the arm warmers at home.
8c and below I use a jacket and if colder a full sleeve undershirt. I have various jackets for different temps. A couple are good for zero and below with a good undershirt.

Yes I think it gets a fair bit colder and frostier in Bendigo than it does here in Albury even though we're probably closer to the Snowies than you are and I can only judge on last year but it doesn't appear to get real cold here, I think we only had one zero degree morning last Winter, I've had it much Colder down in Macquarie Fields in the Campbelltown/ Macarthur region, once getting down to Minus 6, every thing was frozen including the garden hose and the water in it.

[Duck!]

Fairly typical mid-autumn pattern here in Melbourne at the moment; generally light breezes driven by large-scale atmospheric pressure gradients, with localised effects basically non-existent due to minimal thermal gradient from land to water. Daytime temperatures are still mild, mostly in the high teens, but we're getting a few cooler ones here & there. Overnight/early morning temps are now fairly frequently dropping into single figures, assisted by generally clear nights.

During the last week we had the seasonal crossover between bay & ocean water temperatures; Port Phillip is now cooler, at 15.95 deg than the neighbouring Bass Strait waters at 16.53 deg, and that difference will only increase as winter takes hold.

[warthog1]

Shizen Hausen here today. Wet. Tomorrow too apparently. May try out Fulgaz on the trainer at some point

[CmdrBiggles]

Some rain, doesn't matter how much or how heavy, would be very welcome!

It is very, very parched south of the Divide, with rivers, creeks and dams all showing the effects of a prolonged dry spell. That cloud mass drifting down from the N...I can see it engulfed Bendigo, but has yet to have any effect at all SE from Ballarat to G-Town. Heavily overcast outside where I have lit the chimenea, calm and close to 80% humidity, so something's nearby and it's a-coming. Alas! By Saturday morning and my scheduled 80km ride, clouds and rain will be a distant memory as the weekend gets under way with clear skies and bright sunshine — ideal for fast riding (with the promise of delish coffee and a dinkum snot-block at the turn-around point...).

I am bushwalking in the Great Otway National Park tomorrow with three friends. We love getting wet and picking off leeches, hunting for freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldii ssp., similar to sp. found in Tassie), carniverous Otway Black Snails (ictaphanta compacta) and the patina of colour and texture of fallen leaves. I'll be very cranky if it doesn't rain in the rainforest...

[elantra]

Some rain, doesn't matter how much or how heavy, would be very welcome!

It is very, very parched south of the Divide, with rivers, creeks and dams all showing the effects of a prolonged dry spell.

………..

Wow - I had been under the impression that the entire East coast of Australia had been flogged with rain in recent months.

I now stand corrected.
Here (North-East NSW) is suffering from an abundance of rainfall.
I think that rainfall in the last 4 months has exceeded the average annual rainfall - which is quite a lot !
But fortunately we have been spared floods - so far so good- fingers crossed.

Normally here the weather goes cold and dry (relatively speaking) in early May.
Not yet - still wet and warm.

There are all sorts of flow-on effects from persistent and excessive rain - few of them pleasant. Things like ridiculous amounts of grass and weeds, to the extent that cyclists sometimes have to ride further towards the centre of the road.
The local councils do their best to keep grass down - but now the edges of roads and parklands are so soft from continual rain that mowers and tractors sink into the ground and get bogged.

Humans I think suffer added inconvenience and grumpiness due to the rain. People slip and fall.
Roads deteriorate faster. Construction schedules are impacted.
Toads, mosquitoes and Leeches multiply.

But the good news is that by some very major miracle we were endowed with a marvellous new Railtrail up here. Which opened about a year ago and has been extremely popular with walkers, runners, cyclists, birdwatchers, and the occasional horse rider and e-scooter user.

IT’s useablity in gross wet weather is a testimony to the engineering both in the construction of the Railway 128 years ago and by the Contractors who transformed it into a Railtrail much more recently

[Andy01]

I think the biggest downside to prolonged rain that I noticed while riding was around this time in 2022 (Brisbane) when we had a VERY damp March/April/May (from 25/03/22 to 5/06/22 we had 38 days with measurable rain, and 21 of them were in May'22 with 311mm of rain in May alone - long term average is 103mm for May) and most of the concrete paths became VERY slippery from the black algae growing on them in all shady areas (limited sun, lots of wet conditions). I went down once and reported quite a few in my local area to council to waterblast.

It is starting to get a bit slippery in a couple of areas now, but nothing like 2022 - yet !

[g-boaf]

I think the biggest downside to prolonged rain that I noticed while riding was around this time in 2022 (Brisbane) when we had a VERY damp March/April/May (from 25/03/22 to 5/06/22 we had 38 days with measurable rain, and 21 of them were in May'22 with 311mm of rain in May alone - long term average is 103mm for May) and most of the concrete paths became VERY slippery from the black algae growing on them in all shady areas (limited sun, lots of wet conditions). I went down once and reported quite a few in my local area to council to waterblast.

It is starting to get a bit slippery in a couple of areas now, but nothing like 2022 - yet !

The algae grows on some of the sections on the M7 cycleway in south-west Sydney in the southern part of it, makes the underpasses treacherous. I don't know how it is at the moment but 2022 was extremely bad and I know a lot of people who were being extra cautious and still went down.


I haven't ridden outside in many weeks with all the rain recently. I don't feel like getting drenched nor do I feel like risking dangerous path/road conditions.

[am50em]

Two people have been rushed to hospital after a tornado smashed through the city of Bunbury, in WA's south west, on Friday afternoon, ripping off roofs and damaging property.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-10/ ... /103833562

[antigee]

solar storm! southern lights (aurora australis ) might be visible tonight as far north as southern Queensland after 10pm Sat 11/05 obviously looking south

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... olar-storm

[warthog1]

solar storm! southern lights (aurora australis ) might be visible tonight as far north as southern Queensland after 10pm Sat 11/05 obviously looking south

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... olar-storm

Saw some news about that visible from Hobart last night. Looked great!

[CmdrBiggles]

I am driving to Breamlea/Black Rock in 20 minutes to join others an the most southerly point looking out to see, with a large mass of basalt rock in the foreground. The aurora has been visible all night last night, south of Geelong (Torquay, Barwon Heads, Ocean Grove); I only read about it at lunch time today! A small glow is visible from my back verandah at present, 24km from the location mentioned.

[elantra]

solar storm! southern lights (aurora australis ) might be visible tonight as far north as southern Queensland after 10pm Sat 11/05 obviously looking south

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... olar-storm

Saw some news about that visible from Hobart last night. Looked great!

We’re a bit out of luck up here.
Heavy cloud cover and light rain in most of northern coastal NSW and Southern Qld.

So I don’t think we will see much of the spectacle

[warthog1]

solar storm! southern lights (aurora australis ) might be visible tonight as far north as southern Queensland after 10pm Sat 11/05 obviously looking south

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... olar-storm

Saw some news about that visible from Hobart last night. Looked great!

We’re a bit out of luck up here.
Heavy cloud cover and light rain in most of northern coastal NSW and Southern Qld.

So I don’t think we will see much of the spectacle

Nothing here either.

[g-boaf]

Not just heavy cloud in Sydney but heavy rain as well.

Enough already. We’ve had enough rainfall.

[warthog1]

Beautiful day here. Mothers day though and our daugher is coming around at some point. So off the bike at least until thos arvo.

Yep it is a bit of a selfish passtime cycling

[CmdrBiggles]

Saw some news about that visible from Hobart last night. Looked great!

We’re a bit out of luck up here.
Heavy cloud cover and light rain in most of northern coastal NSW and Southern Qld.

So I don’t think we will see much of the spectacle

Nothing here either.

I'm sure there was something up there.
The Caretakers of Campbells Creek cemetery were busy out photographing the aurora, visible everywhere from 9.30 last night. They supplemented a few of theit shots with a flash or headlight to illuminate old graves, particularly the striking pedestel angel with arm outstretched, the aurora glowing on high behind!

Some drifting low cloud in the south coastal area and heaps of people, but the colours were definitely there, if subdued, shifting slowly from red-purple to green-blue. I used a tripod-mounted 1994-vintage Canon EOS1N, loaded with 1600ISO film for 15sec first exposure, 8sec second exposure and 4 seconds third exposure, triple exposed on a single frame by intervalometer stepping, 30 seconds apart, with an old (but minty!) Canon f2.8 apo ultra wide. Hopefully I didn't get the bobbling, wandering heads of people in the frame too!! If they do appear, that will that will be a job for Fauxtoshoppe!!

[Duck!]

I went down to Balnarring Beach on the Westernport side of Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne - south-facing beach with a clear view out to the ocean, with minimal light pollution. However I went pretty late, and I think missed the best of it. Just a faint greenish almost pre-dawn glow to the south, morphing to a barely-perceptible deep purple higher up.

[CmdrBiggles]

I went down to Balnarring Beach on the Westernport side of Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne - south-facing beach with a clear view out to the ocean, with minimal light pollution. However I went pretty late, and I think missed the best of it. Just a faint greenish almost pre-dawn glow to the south, morphing to a barely-perceptible deep purple higher up.

We left at I think 10.40pm; the spot where we were is usually, in the absence of something quite — ahh — out of this world, entirely deserted of anything and anybody, being right next to a sewerage treatment plant. Most people got something between the rents of drifting cloud.

For the hardiest, most devoted ruffits out there, another chance tonight, before a cloud mass gatecrashes the party — that will be the somewhat dull weather that starts the week tomorrow...

More info on aurora forecasts:
****************************************************************
SUBJ: ASWFC AURORA ALERT HIGH LATITUDES
ISSUED AT 0123 UT ON 12 May 2024
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE WEATHER FORECASTING CENTRE

GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS. AURORA MAY BE OBSERVED
DURING LOCAL NIGHT TIME HOURS IN GOOD OBSERVING CONDITIONS
AT HIGH LATITUDES.

Follow the progress of this event on the ASWFC web site
on the Space Weather Status Panel,
https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Space_Weather

Previous reports are archived under
http://listserver.ips.gov.au/pipermail/ ... ora-alert/

More information about ASWFC Aurora Alerts can be found under
our mailing list by following the links,
https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Products_and_Services/4/1

This alert is not subject to forecaster validation. It is
automatically issued from autoscaled data which may produce
a false alarm on rare occasions.

Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre
Bureau of Meteorology
ASWFC@bom.gov.au
www.bom.gov.au | www.sws.bom.gov.au
****************************************************************

[open roader]

Another 17mm of most welcome rain and much less pan evaporation here in Birregurra sees all my local gravel routes in that perfect 'just damp' condition - hard packed, much less loose stuff on top and the damp surface means zero dust.

[elantra]

Another 17mm of most welcome rain and much less pan evaporation here in Birregurra sees all my local gravel routes in that perfect 'just damp' condition - hard packed, much less loose stuff on top and the damp surface means zero dust.

Sounds great.

First fine day in a frightful long time here.
But I think the weather was still messing around with me.

Had to drive half an hour to another town to join a bunch ride, so the bike and various bits of gear were thrown into the back of the car- in the early morning darkness of course.
Jumped out of the car at the destination and started to put my cycling shoes on.
Then uttered a 4-letter word as I noticed that they were missing the nice comfy inner soles.
Which I had pulled out of the shoes after the previous ride in the rain a few days ago.
To assist with drying etc.

Thankfully it wasn’t a problem to ride without them

[g-boaf]

I went down to Balnarring Beach on the Westernport side of Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne - south-facing beach with a clear view out to the ocean, with minimal light pollution. However I went pretty late, and I think missed the best of it. Just a faint greenish almost pre-dawn glow to the south, morphing to a barely-perceptible deep purple higher up.

We left at I think 10.40pm; the spot where we were is usually, in the absence of something quite — ahh — out of this world, entirely deserted of anything and anybody, being right next to a sewerage treatment plant. Most people got something between the rents of drifting cloud.

For the hardiest, most devoted ruffits out there, another chance tonight, before a cloud mass gatecrashes the party — that will be the somewhat dull weather that starts the week tomorrow...

More info on aurora forecasts:
****************************************************************
SUBJ: ASWFC AURORA ALERT HIGH LATITUDES
ISSUED AT 0123 UT ON 12 May 2024
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE WEATHER FORECASTING CENTRE

GEOMAGNETIC STORM IN PROGRESS. AURORA MAY BE OBSERVED
DURING LOCAL NIGHT TIME HOURS IN GOOD OBSERVING CONDITIONS
AT HIGH LATITUDES.

Follow the progress of this event on the ASWFC web site
on the Space Weather Status Panel,
https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Space_Weather

Previous reports are archived under
http://listserver.ips.gov.au/pipermail/ ... ora-alert/

More information about ASWFC Aurora Alerts can be found under
our mailing list by following the links,
https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Products_and_Services/4/1

This alert is not subject to forecaster validation. It is
automatically issued from autoscaled data which may produce
a false alarm on rare occasions.

Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre
Bureau of Meteorology
ASWFC@bom.gov.au
www.bom.gov.au | www.sws.bom.gov.au
****************************************************************

Sydney has clear skies tonight but probably seems like it’s finished.