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Melbourne -- dryer and sunnier. The bipolar summers might be a bit annoying (versus Auckland's cooler but much more stable summer temps) but at least you'd be guaranteed a good number of "beach weather" days.
The main problem with Auckland from my perspective is the high winter rainfall. Melbourne doesn't have this problem. Auckland's winter months get three to four times as much rain as Melbourne.
Melbourne airport averaged close to 2400 sunshine hours over the last decade. This puts it about 300 hours ahead of Auckland. More coastal sites may be cloudier (I've seen 2200 hours for Melbourne a number of times) but Melbourne should still have a sunshine advantage over Auckland. Even if the difference isn't great the fact remains that Melbourne is far dryer than Auckland.
Melbourne -- dryer and sunnier. The bipolar summers might be a bit annoying (versus Auckland's cooler but much more stable summer temps) but at least you'd be guaranteed a good number of "beach weather" days.
The main problem with Auckland from my perspective is the high winter rainfall. Melbourne doesn't have this problem. Auckland's winter months get three to four times as much rain as Melbourne.
Melbourne airport averaged close to 2400 sunshine hours over the last decade. This puts it about 300 hours ahead of Auckland. More coastal sites may be cloudier (I've seen 2200 hours for Melbourne a number of times) but Melbourne should still have a sunshine advantage over Auckland. Even if the difference isn't great the fact remains that Melbourne is far dryer than Auckland.
I'd much rather have all the rainfall in the winter months..
Nothing worst than miserable, humid summer rainfall..
I'd go for Melbourne. Auckland's cool and anemic summers would p1ss me off after a very short while. Looking up their forecasts its a constant regime of 20-25C days and 13-17C nights. Even if it is humid, it's too cool to matter.
Re Melbourne's sunshine - those Wikipedia numbers are crap, as Rwood pointed out. Wikipedia's average temps are also out of date and are no longer representative of conditions we actually get. The real annual average is about 2370 hours.
UNfortunately for Auckland, the Metservice site is a pile of primitive crap and couldn't find their averages (among many other things that are available at a moments notice on the BOM site) , so had to use Wikipedia.
Is Melbourne prone to thunderstorms? Whichever one is more thunderstorm prone I'll give he edge to since winters are not cold enough in either places to make a difference, nor are the summers hot.
Is Melbourne prone to thunderstorms? Whichever one is more thunderstorm prone I'll give he edge to since winters are not cold enough in either places to make a difference, nor are the summers hot.
They both get around 10-15 thunder days a year, though I suspect the warmer summer temperatures means that Melbourne has a greater potential for severe storms.
Is Melbourne prone to thunderstorms? Whichever one is more thunderstorm prone I'll give he edge to since winters are not cold enough in either places to make a difference, nor are the summers hot.
Definately. And more often with much bigger storms than Auckland. Supercells are not uncommon by any means.
On Christmas day 2011, a tornado warning was issued for the city... that day also saw hail the size of oranges and flash flooding that caused over $500 million in property damage. Two tornadoes were recorded west of the city. I flew out of Melbourne Airport that evening, and the freeway was closed due to trees and branches littering the road. The night before (christmas eve), there was constant lightning that was going on almost all night.
Melbourne tends to get several electrical storms in spring and early summer, with large hail being the most common threat. 2009-10 and 2011 were particularly active seasons. Basically, one of the world's Supercell hotspots is a triangle bounded by Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.... so inland Victoria (NE mainly), Melbourne, and inland SE New South Wales and NE New South Wales along with SE Queensland, incl. Brisbane and Gold Coast get the highest frequency of Supercells in Australia, with storms, in terms of cloud structure and severity resembling that of Tornado Alley in the USA.
March 6, 2010 was another extreme event with 10cm hail falling in the suburbs.
IN Melbourne, large hail and flash flooding are the most common threats, followed by possible tornado threat from severe storms that often occur in spring/early summer.
Last edited by Flight Simmer; 02-05-2012 at 07:03 AM..
I would choose Melbourne over Auckland as Auckland has one of the most boring climates in the world. I still couldn't call Melbourne thunderstorm prone seeing as it averages fewer days with thunder a year than some parts of England... though they can be much more severe storms when they do happen.
Auckland NZ actually averages just 6 days of thunder a year, pathetic.
Eastern Australia in general is suck ass for thunderstorm frequency, even Brisbane only averages 22 days a year, but when they do happen the storms are quite violent. A bit like in Mediterranean climates. It definitely can't be compared with anything like tornado alley in the USA where the average TS frequency is 50-70 days per year.
That's that then, Melbourne it is. Auckland does look very boring.
Yeah Mediterranean storms are often severe, I got caught in one on holiday and it was amazing - 22 days a year sounds fantastic compared to no-storm-zone Leeds
I would choose Melbourne over Auckland as Auckland has one of the most boring climates in the world. I still couldn't call Melbourne thunderstorm prone seeing as it averages fewer days with thunder a year than some parts of England... though they can be much more severe storms when they do happen.
Yeah they are, as I've just explained. Whenever Melbourne gets storms, they are almost always severe.
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Auckland NZ actually averages just 6 days of thunder a year, pathetic.
Eastern Australia in general is suck ass for thunderstorm frequency, even Brisbane only averages 22 days a year, but when they do happen the storms are quite violent. A bit like in Mediterranean climates. It definitely can't be compared with anything like tornado alley in the USA where the average TS frequency is 50-70 days per year.
Not quite true. Eastern Australia is typically among the best places in the country to see thunderstorms outside of Darwin or the Kimberely and is the most Supercell-prone location outside of the USA. NE Victoria, eastern NSW and SE Queensland average between 20-40 storm days per year, and the majority of those are actually severe storms with large hail and intense rainfall/flash flooding and sometimes accompanied by wind gusts exceeding well over 100km/h. Hughenden in Queensland recently had a 170km/h gust from a thunderstorm. Not to mention, cloud structure during spring and summer storms well and truly resemble's the USA's finest.
In terms of frequency, yeah there is a difference, but in quality, most storms that occur in Central and NE Victoria, SE New South Wales, Northeast New South Wales and SE Queensland are like those found in Tornado Alley.
I don't think 20-40 storms per year, alot of them reaching Supercell status with large hail, tornado risk and very heavy rainfall, "suck ass".
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