Australian Weather (snowfalls, thunderstorms, forecast, North)

[§AB]

NSW coastal weather is nice year round north of Sydney. Can be a little cloudy and damp in summer though (but NOTHING like our horrendous winters). I went to a town called Port Stephens (150km north of Sydney) in Jan 2006 and was pleasant, about 68-70F at night and mid to high 70's during the day. Humidity added to the pleasant warm feeling. However, the "May Grey" always seemed to roll in just before sunset and finally evaporate sometime before midday.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by §AB

NSW coastal weather is nice year round north of Sydney.

Can be a little cloudy and damp in summer though (but NOTHING like our horrendous winters). I went to a town called Port Stephens (150km north of Sydney) in Jan 2006 and was pleasant, about 68-70F at night and mid to high 70's during the day. Humidity added to the pleasant warm feeling.

However, the "May Grey" always seemed to roll in just before sunset and finally evaporate sometime before midday.

Does that include Sydney or parts of Sydney, or quite literally do you have to go north of the Sydney area for the nicer climate?

As long as it's not usually cold in summer (under 18 C whenever I'm awake ) and the sun shines at least half of all daylight hours I could be a happy camper.

That "May Grey" doesn't sound nearly as annoying as what happens here in fall and winter. If we get any sunshine, most of the time it's through partly cloudy skies in the early morning, when the air's so cold (under 7 C) that the sun usually doesn't feel warm, even if it's windless. Our sun is often gone for the day by sometime between 9 am and 1pm. Strange enough, the cloud often breaks up again shortly after sunset.

*I suppose that "May Grey" would really annoy a star-gazer, but what annoys me most is that most fall afternoons could feel warmish if there was sun, but 90-95% of the time there never is. So basically once fall hits you probably feel any weather resembling warmth until spring, and then only on the nicer spring days until late spring.

[§AB]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

Does that include Sydney or parts of Sydney, or quite literally do you have to go north of the Sydney area for the nicer climate?

Sydney's climate is nice, but they are susceptable to ultra-crap summers. Last summer, (between Dec-Apr), they got 2 days above 30ºC, the highest was 32C I think. There was alot of rain and cloud aswell. by comparison, my town got something like 50 days above 30C (10 of those over 38ºC).

As long as it's not usually cold in summer (under 18 C whenever I'm awake ) and the sun shines at least half of all daylight hours I could be a happy camper.

In summer, Sydney's night low temps are usually around 19-20C, rarely higher than 24C. During the day, it's usually about 24-26C, with some sub-25C days thrown in. Days above 30C come occasionally, but gets warmer in the inland suburbs (sort of like what happens in San Diego). They get frequent northeasterly winds which bring humidity causing the temp to stay mild day and night.

*I suppose that "May Grey" would really annoy a star-gazer, but what annoys me most is that most fall afternoons could feel warmish if there was sun, but 90-95% of the time there never is. So basically once fall hits you probably feel any weather resembling warmth until spring, and then only on the nicer spring days until late spring.

Winters here would be alright, if it wasn't so freaking cloudy all the time. Too bad there isnt a mountain range to the south to trap all the clag.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by §AB

Sydney's climate is nice, but they are susceptable to ultra-crap summers. Last summer, (between Dec-Apr), they got 2 days above 30ºC, the highest was 32C I think. There was alot of rain and cloud aswell. by comparison, my town got something like 50 days above 30C (10 of those over 38ºC).

In summer, Sydney's night low temps are usually around 19-20C, rarely higher than 24C. During the day, it's usually about 24-26C, with some sub-25C days thrown in. Days above 30C come occasionally, but gets warmer in the inland suburbs (sort of like what happens in San Diego). They get frequent northeasterly winds which bring humidity causing the temp to stay mild day and night.

Winters here would be alright, if it wasn't so freaking cloudy all the time. Too bad there isnt a mountain range to the south to trap all the clag.

Sydney's "ultra-crap" summer sounds like a regular, "slightly cooler" Toronto summer, so that wouldn't be a big deal for me.
Every 1 in 3 summers are that cool here.

What really matters to me is how many days in a year get 80+ F or 27+ C... And after that, how many days are 75+ F or 24 C. Even if Sydney had 2 days at 30 C, I would still be satisfied if it had 50-60 days at 27+ C and/or 100 days at 24+ C.

That sounds better than Toronto already.
Nights here normally anywhere from 12-23 C.

Well Toronto's winters wouldn't be alright if we just had one change like more sun, or less snow, or less wind. They would still irritate and be difficult. I suppose if we had almost zero wind instead of 18 km/h average speeds and sunshine 90% of the time, rather than 20% then our winters wouldn't be too annoying, but they would still be a little challenging. What we could really use is 10-15 C higher averages though so the snow couldn't stick... But then that wouldn't be Canadian winter, that'd be Canadian spring.

[§AB]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

Sydney's "ultra-crap" summer sounds like a regular, "slightly cooler" Toronto summer, so that wouldn't be a big deal for me.
Every 1 in 3 summers are that cool here.

here it seems that every february for the last 5 years has been near record cold.

What really matters to me is how many days in a year get 80+ F or 27+ C... And after that, how many days are 75+ F or 24 C. Even if Sydney had 2 days at 30 C, I would still be satisfied if it had 50-60 days at 27+ C and/or 100 days at 24+ C.

I'd still prefer several days well over 30C. After all, that is the essence of summer.
On average, Sydney has 5 days a year above 30C and 2 above 35C. I'm pretty sure the number of 24+ days is over 100. I'd hazard it would be in Melbourne aswell

That sounds better than Toronto already.
Nights here normally anywhere from 12-23 C.

Once advantage of Sydney is that it doesn't cool down at night in summer, it'll be 19-21C at dawn typically. Here where I live, the overnight min can range anywhere between 10C and 35C. Infact, I had a 32.6ºC overnight min on Jan 1 this year. it could've been higher, but the hot winds died down in intensity We actually had about 3-4 nights when the overnight low was close to 30C. The night of Januarry 11th had the potential to be hotter, the forecast was calling for an overnight low of 30-35ºC (depending on the source) and it was looking good - hot airmass, gale force winds straight from the deserts. But sadly, an UNFORECASTED seabreeze/cold front moved up from the ocean and sent the temp plummeting below 30C even before the sun had set The overnight min ended up being about 25C I think. Man I was outraged.

Well Toronto's winters wouldn't be alright if we just had one change like more sun, or less snow, or less wind. They would still irritate and be difficult. I suppose if we had almost zero wind instead of 18 km/h average speeds and sunshine 90% of the time, rather than 20% then our winters wouldn't be too annoying, but they would still be a little challenging. What we could really use is 10-15 C higher averages though so the snow couldn't stick... But then that wouldn't be Canadian winter, that'd be Canadian spring.

Let's just say....I'm happy that I don't live in Canada and you don't live in Winterpeg

[ausweatherman]

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[ausweatherman]

[ausweatherman]

Perth averages 70 days over 30 degrees a year while Sydney averages 15 days a year over 30 degrees.

[Power Storm]

ColdCanadian... Sorry I did not reply, I have been away at my grandparents recently! Your question seems to be anwered above.

For the year so far until the end of June, we have had 305.1mm, which frankly is way below average for this time of year!

[Power Storm]

Cloudy at the moment ahead of a strong cold front which will move into Victoria late tonight and early Thursday. Winds are starting to become fresh and will strengthen to Gale Force this afternoon before touching Storm Force overnight and early in the morning of Thursday. 20-30mm on the way for southwest Vic, elsewhere 10-20mm but lesser falls of course in the northwest. ..
Snow also falling down to 500m across the state, and that usually does not happen...