JackTheLad

Hey, I'm a bit of a Meteorological geek as well, did my work placement at the met office. Its what I was going to do as a career, until I figured out the pay structure of met employees in the UK. Really crap pay.

So ended up in the IT private sector instead, but I still take a close interest in daily and climate stats wherever I am. I keep a record of temps here in Bayside, Brisbane, they don't match up with reported stats, but I haven't bought my professoinal equipment yet!

Cheers,
JTL

kiwichild

You want real tropical? Try cairns and far north queensland

Badge

A bloke in the CFA works on the computers at BOM, a mate of another is a metro/oceanographer. We've sat down on my deck and worked out where the sun will set in the winter, we've had the autumnal equinox, days ago, we can have a good idea..I need to know abit about weather for flying and firefighting..stable/unstable conditions..the other day at CFA we had an idea- with my professional arachuting experience, I could become a firejumper....(lol)

Seriously, London and Melbourne are the best places to study weather. I am getting in to the ocean currents, and seasons as well. I knew continental size effects temp, but didn't know about west coast/east cost margins etc...!!

People get confused - they say Melbourne has a meditterean climate; its doesn't, according to a book I have, Med climate is found in CA, the Med(!), SW tip of WA and a small segment of South America......(!)

cheers

Badge

Badge

I don't want any! Of course. that is what I am saying, I am merely stating a common myth - Brisbane = tropical. I guess, strictly speaking, and it is 3am in the morning, it isn't....in the same way, that Sydney is not even sub Tropical - although it does get warm oceanic currents - not sure if the East winds are warm though(!) the entire East Coast does.

I believe the sub tropical line or delineation - call it what you will - is around Coff's Harbour - half way up NSW....maybe it also depends on what classification system you use.

Badge

kiwichild

Yep. Agreed. Brisbane is definitely sub-tropical

JackTheLad

I'm still trying to get my head around Australias fixation with the jetstreams. Alright, we looked at them briefly in the UK met (i was only a work placement bod). But as far as I was aware it was the low level pressure systems they used to decide weather fronts etc. Even the UK met still just show low level pressure systems.

Here in Oz there is a much bigger fixation on jetstreams. Why?

Cheers,
JTL

kiwichild

cos they run on hot air here Jack; that's why

ABCDiamond

On that point, I thought i'd add this. We moved to Brisbane (Bayside) from Sydney, and one of the reasons we wouldnt go back is the weather. In comparison Sydney was hotter than where we are now. Not something we expected when we moved, in fact we expected the opposite.

Vegemite Kids

Great info Badge. Must have taken you ages to analyse all that info. Well done M8. Will send you some Karma for your hard work as soon as I'm allowed.

M

Neil S

Bit more summery info about Melbourne. All the locals here think that Melbourne has had a bad summer this year. However, would the UK get 15 days of temps over 30C and would the UK get 63 days of 10 hours or plus sunshine?

Simone

Good one Badge, very interesting. Confirmed most of my 'guesses'.

Kiwichild: I lived in Nullagine for 10 months when I was 9....
(for those not in the know, that's 100kms from Marble Bar, the hottest place in Australia.... :scared: )


Drove out east this weekend (Toodyay, Northam, Mundaring etc)... ohhh, it's so dry! Even the Avon River was nearly totally dry, only a few mud pools in some places. But, come winter, it'll be full up, and nice and green up there, and there'll be the Avon Descent(canoeing).
Mundaring Weir still had water in it, but apparently not much.

About 15 years ago the Cave at Yanchep NP still had water in it. Now it's totally dry. Climates changing (or Perth's population is growing.. fast!!) Or make that both!

ABCDiamond

For anyone interested in looking at general daily weather forecasts, this link http://www.redland.yourguide.com.au/...id=QLD&local=0 shows about 20+ areas in each State with the current days forecast.

Just click on the State you want to look at.
I just checked the NSW weather, as my wife is down there for the weekend, and she should have taken some jumpers

QLD extremes today 13° to 37° (from the listed sites)

NSW extremes today -1° to 29°

WA 15° to 38°

Neil S

Thanks for this ABCDiamond. There's even a forecast for the Mornington Peninsula, which is more than you can say for the Bureau of Meteorology.

Jacqui

March has been unusually humid for Perth this year, and hotter. It has certainly made us all feel more "sticky" than usual, and the evaporative air conditioners struggle with humid weather. I don't think the 51 degrees temps that someone mentioned were recorded at Perth, must have been much further inland. I think the metropolitan measurements are taken at Perth airport and don't usually go much over 41-42 degrees.

As for the rain, I can only recall two lots of rainfall since the end of November - one this week and one a fortnight ago! It's great that in summer you can leave things out in the garden and not worry about them getting wet, you know what kids are like for leaving their toys out The only trouble is, when it rains in winter, boy does it come down in torrents! And it doesn't all come at night, probably just as well really, because it's so loud on the roof we would all be suffering lack of sleep. The rain starts almost like someone switches it on. You're walking along thinking how pleasant it is, when all of a sudden, whoosh it's chucking down and you are absolutely drenched and it goes on like this for some time, then just as suddenly it stops, dead. If you're out in the car and it rains really heavy, it can be impossible to see through the windscreen, as bad as driving in fog. Many motorists will pull over and wait for the rain to pass, or will carry on real slow. It can be quite scary. The thunderstorms are quite something too, much louder and brighter than any we encountered in the UK and can go on for several hours. Many a night we've had the kids climb into bed with us because of a prolonged storm, or sat around with candles and torches because the power's gone down again. Nope I don't really like winters here, but at least it's not freezing cold.