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I would love to watch the weather play out across NZ and Australia looking at the synoptic weather map each day. However, I would guess it would be way more fun in the cold season (winter) than now - as they are heading into summer. Just like the USA, as the time of high sun approaches, storm tracks/fronts/etc reteat north I think. So beyond local thundershowers in the more humid/tropical areas or the threat of a tropical cyclone...I would think the daily weather map is not too flashy.
Isn't Australia prone to floods as well? I remember hearing Brisbane being rather hard hit.
Sounds like your precipitation is very variable compared to the US Northeast. Droughts are rather unlikely here. Though flooding has been a big issue this year here. Liable to be one of the wettest on record here this year. One of the main east- west highways in the state is still closed from mudslides from Hurricane Irene.
It certainly is. The Queensland event was a very big one. Under general future scenarios the intensity of flooding events in the northeast of the country will probably increase.
It certainly is. The Queensland event was a very big one. Under general future scenarios the intensity of flooding events in the northeast of the country will probably increase.
Is that a uniquely Queensland thing? Seems like that state either has droughts or floods, hardly any normal rain outside of the very narrow coastal strip. one thing that amazes me is that the GDR isn't a terribly high mountain range, yet it practically absorbs half the rainfall and starves the leeward side of lots of rain for such a short mountain range.
I would love to watch the weather play out across NZ and Australia looking at the synoptic weather map each day. However, I would guess it would be way more fun in the cold season (winter) than now - as they are heading into summer. Just like the USA, as the time of high sun approaches, storm tracks/fronts/etc reteat north I think. So beyond local thundershowers in the more humid/tropical areas or the threat of a tropical cyclone...I would think the daily weather map is not too flashy.
Winter/spring generally sees a very active map. Generally a nonstop procession of fast moving fronts from the NW and SW, so warm and cold fronts can be within hours of each other. Every few days will see a migrating high, that could stick around for a couple of days or up to 2 weeks. Cyclones or ex tropical storms add a bit of extra excitement. Lows passing right through the centre of the country often mean a good chance of snow to sea level and sometimes the isobars can extend in a nearly straight line down to about 70S, when we get cold dry air.
One TV weather presenter sometimes refers to -a tormented catherinewheel of fronts, which is rather apt I think. It makes for good cloud watching,with 4 or 5 different cloud types visible at the same time on somedays. Spells of cloudless days from 7-10 days are quite frequent.
Hmm didn't realize that, though it's still wetter than my semi-arid image of Australia when I was younger. A lot of the temperate maritime climates in Western Europe record rather low precipitation, though they have colder winters so they need less precipitation to stay green.
Wikipedia lists Melbourne's precipitation as 528.5 mm. And 3000 sunshine hours. Apparently 2700 hours isn't enough for whoever is vandalizing the wiki page.
LOL. Some seriously “deluded” people actually believe that Melbourne has far superior weather to Sydney! The stats. prove otherwise, of course, especially where sunshine and temperature is concerned. For the record, the average rain for Melbourne city is 648mm and airport 545. The most common "weapon" is rain - i.e. Sydney has twice the annual rainfall - but what most people don't realise is that the amount of rain days between those two cities does not differ so much and in some years, Melbourne actually overtakes Sydney. In addition, people need to factor in the fact that when rain falls in Sydney, it is more of a much heavier and torrential nature. Daily falls of over 50mm is quite common here, not much so in Melbourne where it is regarded as great if falls exceed 20mm!
Isn't Australia prone to floods as well? I remember hearing Brisbane being rather hard hit.
Sounds like your precipitation is very variable compared to the US Northeast. Droughts are rather unlikely here. Though flooding has been a big issue this year here. Liable to be one of the wettest on record here this year. One of the main east- west highways in the state is still closed from mudslides from Hurricane Irene.
Actually, we are (very unfortunately as it is) more prone to droughts than floods with the latter being well overdue seeing that the last major flood occurred in ‘74. At least all dams were filled up! Ironically, today, dams have dropped below 90% and many parts of Queensland have recorded their driest November in nearly 30 years.
Last edited by koyaanisqatsi1; 12-02-2011 at 04:45 AM..
LOL. Some seriously “deluded” people actually believe that Melbourne has far superior weather to Sydney! The stats. prove otherwise, of course, especially where sunshine and temperature is concerned. For the record, the average rain for Melbourne city is 648mm and airport 545. The most common "weapon" is rain - i.e. Sydney has twice the annual rainfall - but what most people don't realise is that the amount of rain days between those two cities does not differ so much and in some years, Melbourne actually overtakes Sydney. In addition, people need to factor in the fact that when rain falls in Sydney, it is more of a much heavier and torrential nature. Daily falls of over 50mm is quite common here, not much so in Melbourne where it is regarded as great if falls exceed 20mm!
Where sunshine is concerned? More is better for you?
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Liable to be one of the wettest on record here this year. One of the main east- west highways in the state is still closed from mudslides from Hurricane Irene.
