Tuesday, 1 June 2004

MONTHLY CLIMATE SUMMARY - TASMANIA

A cool season - Tasmania in autumn 2004

Autumn 2004 was one of the coolest seen for many years in parts of Tasmania. Rainfall was below normal in many areas, but close to normal in others.

Included in this summary are tables of State extremes, some more details, some new records, and summaries for sites across the State appear below.

A separate summary for May 2004 is available, along with previous summaries for April and March.

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 autumn 2004
Highest temperature
Hottest day		 32.7 °C King Island Airport on 4th Mar
Highest mean daily maximum temperature
Warmest days on average		 18.2 °C Flinders Island Airport
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature
Coolest days on average		 8.2 °C Mount Read
Lowest daily maximum temperature
Coldest day		 -0.8 °C Mount Wellington on 28th May
Lowest temperature
Coldest night		 -5.3 °C Tunnack Fire Station on 4th Apr
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature
Coldest nights on average		 0.9 °C Liawenee
Highest mean daily minimum temperature
Mildest nights on average		 12.4 °C Swan Island
Highest daily minimum
Warmest night		 20.1 °C Maatsuyker Island Lighthouse on 4th Mar
Highest total rainfall
Wettest overall		 877.8 mm Mount Read
Lowest total rainfall
Driest overall		 62.8 mm Morningside (Macquarie River)
and Tunbridge (Austin-Vale)
Highest daily rainfall
Wettest day		 108.0 mm St Marys (Ponderosa) on 12th Apr

Details

In most parts of the State, mean daily maximum temperatures were below normal in each of March, April and May 2004. Combined, the averages for autumn 2004 are below normal across almost the entire State. Swansea had its lowest mean daily maximum temperature for autumn since 1965, whilst for many others it was the coldest for at least 6 years. Hobart's mean daily maximum for autumn was 16.8 °C, -0.5 °C below normal. Last year was only fractionally higher with an average of 16.9 °C, but 2002 was a significantly milder 18.6 °C.

Mean minimum (overnight) temperatures for autumn were below normal across the State. For many locations (including Hobart, Launceston, Burnie, Fingal, Orford, Scottsdale, Strahan and Maydena) the mean minima were the lowest for at least 7 years.

Rainfall for autumn was below normal in the Central North and Midlands, the Tasman Peninsula, the far northwest and on King and Flinders islands. In other areas the totals were close to normal. Bushy Park and Tarraleah had their wettest autumn since 1996, and Hastings Chalet and Waddamana had their wettest autumn since 1997. 

Records

Record Lowest Mean Maximum Temperature for autumn

Mean daily maximum
temperature
for autumn 2004 (°C) 		Previous lowest
for autumn 		Years of
record
Fingal 17.1 = 17.1
in 1995
 18
Scamander 17.8 17.9
in 1979
 18
Bull Bay 16.4 = 16.4
in 1996
 13


Record Lowest Mean Daily Minimum Temperature for autumn

Mean daily minimum
temperature
for autumn 2004 (°C) 		Previous lowest
for autumn 		Years of
record
Scamander 8.6 8.7
in 1987
 17
Ross 4.6 4.8
in 1996
 11


Summaries

Summary statistics for autumn 2004


 Maximum temperatures
for autumn
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for autumn
(°C)		 Rainfall
for autumn
(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 16.8 -0.4 31.8 8.9 0 2.9 136 145
Launceston 18.1 -0.9 27.6 6.6 -0.9 -0.3 138 153
Burnie 17.8 +0.2 24.7 10.1 0 3.0 145 223
Devonport
 17.3 -0.3 23.5 8.3 -0.2 0.7 123 188
Swansea
17.7 -0.8 27.6 7.8 -0.5 2.7 140 149
Strathgordon
 13.3 -1.0 28.8 6.3 -0.6 -0.1 579 589
King Island Airport 17.1 -0.4 32.7 10.0 -0.4 1.4 150 191
Flinders Island Airport 18.2 -0.4 31.0 10.8 +0.1 1.4 115 194
Bicheno 17.8 -0.7 27.4 9.9 -0.4 3.2 168 176
Bull Bay 16.4 -0.9 32.0 9.3 -0.4 3.2 158 133
Bushy Park 17.6 -0.3 30.9 5.2 -1.1 -2.4 149 133
Cape Bruny
 15.3 -0.1 30.0 9.6 0 3.1 213 234
Cape Grim
 16.0 -0.5 25.0 11.3 -0.2 7.0 116 180
Dover 16.4 -0.5 31.0 7.2 -0.1 1.5 165 207
Eddystone Point 18.1 +0.2 24.8 11.2 -0.3 3.3 153 193
Fingal 17.1 -1.3 26.6 4.7 -0.7 -2.7 119 148
Friendly Beaches 17.7 -1.1 27.0 9.1 -1.0 3.5 167 180
Geeveston 16.2 -1.1 32.1 6.5 +0.1 -0.5 184 196
Grove
17.1 -0.4 30.6 6.0 -0.2 -1.7 160 172
Hartz Mountain 11.0 -0.5 26.4 4.1 -0.8 -1.3

Hobart Airport 17.4 -0.6 32.6 8.5 -0.2 3.0 91 118
Lake Leake 13.7 -0.5 24.3 3.3 -0.9 -3.6 91 208
Lake St Clair
12.5 -0.7 25.4 2.3 -0.4 -3.7 380 397
Launceston Airport 17.1 -0.3 27.6 5.4 -1.2 -2.3 100 153
Luncheon Hill
 15.1 -0.7 26.4 7.1 -1.0 1.5 377 327
Maatsuyker Island
 13.9 -0.6 29.1 9.1 -0.4 4.7 216 312
Marrawah 16.3 -0.7 27.0 9.7 -0.6 2.0 188 255
Maydena
15.2 -1.0 29.6 5.4 0 -1.6 244 259
Melton Mowbray 16.5 -0.9 31.2 5.3 -0.7 -3.7 99 94
Moogara 13.3 -0.6 26.8 5.0 -0.5 -1.8 194 175
Mount Read 8.2 -0.9 20.8 2.5 -1.0 -2.4 878 909
Mount Wellington 8.3 +0.2 20.5 1.7 -0.4 -4.6

Orford 17.1 -1.2 28.6 8.3 -0.1 2.0 107 166
Port Arthur 15.3 -0.3 27.0 8.6 -0.5 3.6 215 273
Powranna 17.7 -0.3 28.2 5.7 -0.4 -3.6 91 117
Ross 17.5 -0.1 28.5 4.6 -0.9 -4.4 79 96
Scamander 17.8 -0.9 29.2 8.6 -0.9 1.0 154 201
Scottsdale 17.2 -0.9 27.4 6.9 -0.9 -0.7 170 239
Sheffield
15.8 -0.9 23.7 6.5 -0.8 -0.9

Smithton
 17.2 -0.6 25.0 7.1 -0.5 -1.4 181 170
Strahan
 16.0 -0.6 30.9 7.9 -0.6 0.2 311 347
Swan Island
 17.5 -0.1 24.9 12.4 0 6.5 106 157
Tarraleah
 13.3 -0.8 26.3 4.2 +0.2 -1.4 260 273
Wynyard
 17.3 0 23.9 6.8 -0.3 -2.1 207 220

Note

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 11 am on Tuesday 1 June 2004. Although every effort has been made to check them, it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

Further information

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