Friday, 30 January 2004

MONTHLY CLIMATE SUMMARY - TASMANIA

Wet and cool - Tasmania in January 2004

Though fairly dry for the first three weeks, January has ended up being a wet month with rainfall totals well above normal across most of the State. Many places have reported record totals. Temperatures have been below average on most days. 
A table of State extremes, some more details, some new records, and summaries for sites across the State appear below.
Details in this summary are based on available information to 9am on Friday 30 January 2004.

Further information

Climate and Consultancy Section
Tasmania and Antarctica Regional Office
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (03) 6221 2043
Email climate.tas@bom.gov.au

Extremes

Weather extremes during January 2004
Highest temperature
Hottest day		 35.0 °C Campania on 20th
Lowest temperature
Coldest night		 -3.9 °C Liawenee on 19th
Highest total rainfall
Wettest overall		 532.6 mm Gray
Highest daily rainfall
Wettest day		 234.2 mm Gray on 29th

Details

 Apart from a couple of days at the start of the month and around the 20th (the warmest day across the State), daily maximum temperatures were generally below normal. As a result averaged maxima for the month were below the long-term average for January across the State, in some cases by over 3°C.
Minimum temperatures were also below normal on most days, particularly the morning of the 19th.

Rainfall totals were well above average for most of the State, with the bulk of the rain falling over the last few days. Many places have already had their wettest January on record and others are likely to do likewise as rain still falls.
 

Records

Record Highest Total Rainfall for January

Total rainfall
for January 2004 (mm) 		Previous highest
for January 		Years of
record
Frankford 195.8 156.6
in 1996
 111
Latrobe 161.4 133.5
in 1938
 104
Cape Barren Island 198.4 150.4
in 1998
 86
Waddamana 170.7 126.8
in 1937
 78
Gladstone 213.0 193.6
in 1995
 77
Victoria Valley 160.2 143.0
in 1937
 67
Devonport Airport 162.2 117.1
in 1979
 41
Forthside 164.6 155.4
in 1996
 39
Barrington 199.1 184.4
in 1996
 38
Gray 532.6 323.6
in 1991
 33
Scottsdale 135.2 134.4
in 1991
 32
Gowrie Park 185.6 130.5
in 1971
 23
Scamander 211.4 85.1
in 1987
 21
Deviot Jetty 150.4 137.2
in 1991
 16
Lake St Clair 206.8 196.4
in 1994
 15
Mount Wellington 293.6 181.4
in 1991
 14
Maydena 145.7 129.6
in 1994
 10


Record Lowest Temperature for January

Lowest daily maximum
temperature
in January 2004 (°C) 		Previous lowest
for January 		Years of
record
Bushy Park 0.2
on 19th
 0.6
on 24th in 2000
 70
Bull Bay 6.0
on 18th
 6.4
on 11th in 1993
 13
Bridport 4.9
on 18th
 5.9
on 4th in 1998
 10


Summaries

Summary statistics for January 2004

Maximum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Rainfall
for January
(mm)
Mean for 2004 Difference from normal Highest for 2004 Mean for 2004 Difference from normal Lowest for 2004 Total for 2004 Normal total
Hobart 21.4 -0.2 33.9 11.6 -0.3 6.0 67
 48
Launceston 21.9 -2.2 28.0 10.8 -1.3 5.0 127 49
Burnie 20.2 -0.7 24.4 11.4 -1.2 5.2 55
 44
Devonport 19.6 -1.5 23.9 10.3 -2.0 5.1 162
 42
Swansea 22.1 -0.1 33.1 11.1 -0.5 5.4 147
 49
Strathgordon 16.3 -3.1 26.3 8.4 -1.1 3.3 235
 148
King Island Airport 18.7 -2.0 24.3 11.2 -1.4 3.4 39
 38
Flinders Island Airport 20.6 -1.4 31.8 12.8 -0.4 5.7 46 47

Further information

Climate and Consultancy Section
Tasmania and Antarctica Regional Office
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (03) 6221 2043
Email climate.tas@bom.gov.au