Curls

IS AUSTRALIA ALWAYS HOT? Lots of programmes have been on t.v talking about Australia and the weather there. Almost all show sunshine beaches, baking hot weather, people indoors because they can't bear to go outside, worries about skin cancer.

I MEAN IT CAN'T ALWAYS BE LIKE THIS CAN IT!!!

I love the sunshine but does it ever rain down under?!?!?!? I have heard about a place in melbourne where there is SNOW! I have looked in all the travel brochures and they give you 'the average rainfall and hours of sunshine per month' but i want it from the horses mouth so to speak.

I am going to have to get my head round the different seasons let alone the differeneces in temperature. When you get there do you instantly feel swamped by the heat and miss the cold blustery wind's of England with rain, sleet and snow or d you get used to it pretty soon. Do you have to spend your life in the house in the summer and does every australian really know someone who has skin cancer!!!

Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Curls.

steandleigh

Hi Curls,

it really all depends upon where exactly in Oz you are.

For us, at the moment, it is Hot, Hot, Hot and soon it will be wet, Wet, Wet!!!!! ( and still hot!!! ).

When you step off the 'plane, it will generally be warmer than where you are coming from - we came from the Uk ( sept ) to Cairns and it was mildily warmer, not the " omg, its like opening an oven door " heat.

Since then, its gone from 27-28 degrees to 31 degrees everyday and rising.

YOU WILL ACCLIMATISE!!!!!!

We (personally) are getting along just fine, we now have the air-con on at night, an hour before we go to bed, but we are nowhere near having it on through the night yet!!!!!!

Be strong in your head, if you want to live in a different country, you have to accept all the differences, not only the weather.

If you want it badly, you will cope. It can't be any worse than a freezing cold, miserable, drizzly day in winter, in the uk, can it????

Good luck and best wishes,

leigh. x

Grayling

As Leigh says it depends where you are.

Anywhere north of the tropics will be hot all year but also very wet at times.
Anywhere in the south (Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth) can get quite cold in the winter and Very hot in the summer.

Sydney has twice the annual rainfall of London I believe.

People even complain of the cold in Brisbane even though the Temperature looks high compared to the UK.
You acclimatise to the heat so feel the cold more as well.

Better to check where you are going as there are huge regional differences.

G

biggy

we r south of Cairns and today we got to 35 degrees and it was pissin down this am.....u just gotta take it easy and drink plenty water

we came from Scotland in July was lovely here but after a week we were finding it cold in the evenings.......although it is hot hot hot thro the day we still snuggle under the duvet at night........if u get too hot just take yer kit off wooo hooooo

its fab

oh and dont forget the 30+ suncream hat and shades u r sorted

Trevglas

My first winter in Australia was in Canberra, and I have to say, I had never been so cold in my life! Temperatures can fall to -6 to -8 at night, and insulation in many Aussie houses is definitely an optional extra. Couple this with the fact heating consisted of a single oil filled electric heater, I definitely regretted dumping my woooly jumpers!

Here in Queensland we went from drought conditions, with severe water restrictions about to be imposed to having over a foot of rain in 2 days!

Australia can definitely be the coldest wettest hot dry place on the planet!

sel

We have been reading this sort of stuff in the news lately :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/3992231.stm

Is it really that bad, I have heard that hose pipe bans happen and that you have to be careful to a point, or is it just scaremongering, I mean you only have to read posts on here to see how many tax paying skilled people are shipping out .....

Sorry to be the one to post it but I have felt the need for truthful first hand feedback from those who are experiencing life out there (the lucky ones BTW).

Sel x

Jonahs_mummy

My mum lives on the Gold Coast & at the mo its hot hot hot but this time last week the rain went on for 3 days straight - her pool even overflowed into the park behind her house!

JackTheLad

Its not really a problem

a quote from that BBC article says

We've had that in in NSW and Southeast QLD in the last week. Its not like UK, its not steady rain, its days without rain and then downpours, thunderstorms, floods etc. Its also only the start of 'summer' here, which is when the majority of the storms occur, so the news report sounds like scare mongering. We expect alot of rain in the next 3 months, probably mostly falling when I'm out walking the dog

Cheers,
JTL

Curls

So the rain can get pretty bad, i think i'll hold on to my woolies!

Another thing more of a (BTW) has anyone had any really bad experiences of FIRE You know the type houses being destroyed, wildlife being killed and the sort. Does it only happen in Sydney/ melbourne area's and does it happen often???? Cos if it does then that rain will sure come in handy!

Curls.

Simone

Well, THIS WEEK in Perth it's been wet wet wet(pouring down, which was much needed!), and cold for this time of year (20 degrees), and this weekend it's going to dry and warm/hot. 26 Saturday, 30 degrees Sunday and 34 degrees on Monday!!!

All depends where you're heading.
Perth in the summer is hot(esp Febuary)30/35/40.
Perth in winter is cool with showers (17-22 degrees, 0-5 at night. )
Spring and autum are the nicest. Around 25.

JackTheLad

As my mum says 'yeah but its warm rain'

We had a 2 month drought when we arrived in Brissie. Lots of fires in surrounding areas, even some days when the sun was hazy due to the smoke from the fires, and one day when we had ash falling on our garden due to a fire 1 mile away.

They happen, we aren't experts, as we've only been here 3 months, but from our research, its pretty easy to figure out what houses are in flood or fire risk areas. But there is no accounting for Mother Nature,

Cheers,
JTL

Grayling

Curls

This happened in 1983:

http://www.abc.net.au/southeastsa/features/fiash.htm

Many people died.

Fires happen all the time. What changes is the severity :scared:

G

sel

THANK YOU - takes away those niggling doubts.

For me it rains when walking dog, collecting kids, popping to shops, wont bore you, the list goes on -

Sel x

Curls

so it's not all sunshine and beaches!
I can't believe it can get so bad over there. What about the skin cancer is it still a 'Extreme High Risk zone'???

BTW great replies much better than the travel brochures!

Curls.

Larissa

As Simone said, it's been raining quite a bit here in Perth. It can get cold at night, so you might have to put socks and a jumper on in the evenings. A few days ago it was really hot though. Hubby has recently put up some shade cloth in the backyard as we had no shade; there are lots of things you can do to reduce the risk of overexposure. Besides, I'm quite happy to be indoors in the heat of the day (used to siestas in Greece), I wouldn't think twice about being indoors for a while in the UK if it was freezing cold! If you do need to go out in the heat, slip, slop, slap and take a bottle of water with you.

One of the hardest bits when we first got here was when my son fell ill and ran a high temperature for a few days. It was quite hot at the time and it was pretty hard to cool him down. He's much better now, but I really felt for him because he stuggled to adapt at the time. Anyone with babies / toddlers might like to consider coming over when it's cooler, unless you are really sure you can get a place with air-con and that you won't have to keep going in and out of the car/house.
Larissa