Monday, 2 August 2004

Corrected copy (corrections to today's temperatures at Grove and Geeveston)

A cold day in Tasmania

Today has been one of the coldest Tasmania has experienced for many years.

Many stations, especially in southeast and inland areas, reported temperatures below zero last night. Orford recorded -2.9 °C, the coldest August night there since records began in 1968.

A band of cloud move across southern Tasmania during the morning, sealing out the sun's warmth. As a result, much of the island struggled to get above 8 °C.  The main exception was the far northwest and on the Bass Strait islands, where temperatures were close to 14 °C.

Grove (3.5 °C), Bushy Park (3.1 °C), Geeveston (4.7 °C) and Launceston (7.8 °C) all reported their coldest-ever August day. As the temperature "accounting period" does not finish until 9 am tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, it is possible that some of these maxima will rise overnight.

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Hobart

Temperatures in Hobart are typical of what has happened in the southeast of the State in the last day or so.

Sunday's maximum of 8.3 °C was reached just after noon. From then, the temperature slid gradually away, dipping below 2 °C at around 10:40 pm. It bottomed out at just 0.5 °C at about 7:30 am on Monday morning. The temperature stayed below 2° C until about 8:40 am.

The very long time spent at low temperature, and not just the temperature itself, would have helped in the formation of frost.

With the cold start and cloud obscuring the sun, the temperature struggled to get to 6 °C (by the time this statement was being prepared at 4:40 pm). This is close to the coldest-ever August day in Hobart, which was 5.5 °C on 4 August 1974. It is the coldest day in Hobart since 9 July 1997, when it was 5.7 °C. The coldest day in Hobart for any month was 18 June 1985, with just 4.3 °C. The long-term mean maximum (daytime) temperature for August is 13.0°C.

The coldest overnight temperature ever recorded in Hobart was -2.8 °C, on 11 July 1981 and 25 June 1972. The coldest temperature in August was -1.8 °C, on 5 August 1962.  The long-term mean minimum (overnight) temperature for Hobart in August is 5.2 °C.

The temperatures mentioned were all recorded in a standard "Stevenson screen" at the Bureau of Meteorology's observing site in Battery Point. The temperature would have been lower in some parts of the city.

Hourly Temperatures in Hobart

Updates to this table can be obtained at any time by phoning the Regional Forecasting Centre in Hobart on (03) 6221 2000.

	Time	Temperature (° C)
Sunday 1 August	9 am	2.9
	10 am	4.6
	11 am	6.6
	Noon	8.2
	1 pm	7.4
	2 pm	6.8
	3 pm	7.4
	4 pm	7.3
	5 pm	5.7
	6 pm	4.4
	7 pm	4.1
	8 pm	3.1
	9 pm	2.7
	10 pm	2.1
	11 pm	1.6
	midnight	1.7
Monday 2 August	1 am	1.0
	2 am	1.7
	3 am	0.9
	4 am	1.2
	5 am	0.7
	6 am	1.0
	7 am	1.0
	8 am	1.3
	9 am	2.2
	10 am	3.0
	11 am	3.8
	noon	4.4
	1 pm	4.4
	2 pm	5.1
	3 pm	5.0
	4 pm	5.6

Further information

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