Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
certainly an uncommon weather pattern. Same sort of dewpoints here, I'm enjoying it, love the smell of humidity and that tropical feeling not to mention the warm rain
I don't know much about dewpoints but is 23°C that high? It's just like 23°C with full humidity right? What's special about it ?
Well, if you knew the slightest thing about Melbourne's climate you'd understand why it's special
Firstly, Melbourne lies between a dry-semi arid region to the north and a freezing cold ocean to the south, at lat 38 deg south. Is that conductive to high dewpoints? No. Now, I know places in USA and Asia at that latitude get dewpoints that high easily, keep in mind they have oceans with SSTs of ~25-30C in the form of the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulfstream and the warm seas of the north Pacific and South China seas, which are not only at comparitively higher latitudes than their southern counter parts, but with strong currents that draw these warm waters right up deep into temperate latitudes.
Southern Australia lies at the boundary of a freezing ocean with SSTs under 20C even in mid summer, and a dry inland area with normally little rainfall. The nearest Ocean to Melbourne with SSTs inexcess of 25C lies 1000km away. Such warm waters tend to stay around the northern half of the country, as ocean currents here are not strong enough to draw this water far south, and furthermore, even if that was the case, Melbourne's location would mean that this water would bypass the area entirely. It is no small feat to get dewpoints like this in this location, and in my 20 years living in this region this is the first time I can remember prolonged dewpoints this high. We don't get monsoon troughs coming down this far, and most airmasses that even originate in the tropics tend to dry out by the time they get this far south.
I told you I knew little about dewpoints and what they represented. No need for this slightly agressive remark about my supposed ignorance about Melbourne's climate.
My question was not why it is so rare there but rather what feels so special about these conditions. Right now here it is 27°C with 85% RH, so a dewpoint of around 24°C I guess, and it feels like nothing special at all, thus I didn't really understand your point. That's it.
I was at an outdoor concert near my town when the dewpoint was 24°C. It was evening, and starting to fog over. If it has hot it would have been gross, but instead just very moist and kinda relaxing. Everyone seemed to enjoying themselves, and one of the performers (who was from a hotter climate) comment on the "beautiful evening". Local news called it a steambath.
@dhdh
If you live in a place without a high humidity, a high dewpoint might feel like a shock.
I was at an outdoor concert near my town when the dewpoint was 24°C. It was evening, and starting to fog over. If it has hot it would have been gross, but instead just very moist and kinda relaxing. Everyone seemed to enjoying themselves, and one of the performers (who was from a hotter climate) comment on the "beautiful evening". Local news called it a steambath.
@dhdh
If you live in a place without a high humidity, a high dewpoint might feel like a shock.
Some people on the aus weather forums seem to overreact, but really it is not as bad or as "steamy" as it otherwise would appear. I'm actually getting use to it now. But the air has that tropical smell, and your skin tends to get slimey.
temp 25.1C / dewpoint 24.2C here atm.
This takes the freakin cake though, this town on the south coast of Victoria just reached a dewpoint of 27C!!!!!!!!!
This town in northwest Vic is also getting dewpoints close to 26C
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.