Tuesday, 1 February 2005

MONTHLY CLIMATE SUMMARY - TASMANIA

Thunderstorms and some warm days - Tasmania in January 2005

A string of warm to hot days at the end of January helped erase memories of a rather cool start to the month. There were several outbreaks of thunderstorms in different parts of the State during the month, leading to damaging lightning strikes and some very heavy rain in short periods.

Included in this summary are a table of State extremes, some more details, and summary figures for sites across the State.

Further information

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

Extremes

Weather extremes during January 2005
Highest temperature Hottest day	36.8 °C	Bushy Park on the 26th
Highest mean daily maximum temperature Warmest days on average	24.5 °C	Ross and Ouse
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature Coolest days on average	12.9 °C	Mount Read
Lowest daily maximum temperature Coldest day	4.0 °C	Mount Wellington on the 2nd
Lowest temperature Coldest night	-1.2 °C	Liawenee on the 18th
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature Coldest nights on average	4.9 °C	Mount Wellington and Liawenee
Highest mean daily minimum temperature Mildest nights on average	14.6 °C	Swan Island
Highest daily minimum Warmest night	20.0 °C	Flinders Island Airport on the 26th
Highest total rainfall Wettest overall	218.4 mm	Mount Read
Lowest total rainfall Driest overall	11.2 mm	Hamilton (Clyde River)
Highest daily rainfall Wettest day	83.0 mm	Bronte Park on the 28th
Strongest wind gust Highest wind speed	133 km/h	Mount Wellington on the 12th

Details

The first ten days of January were generally cool, but northwesterly winds ahead of a cold front pushed temperatures over 30 C in the southeast on the 11th. The next week or so was a mixed bag, but in the north temperatures were often very close to normal. It was the final week or so where high temperatures became almost the norm, with several over-30 days noted.
Averaged across the month, maximum temperatures were within half a degree of normal: slightly above in the southeast, northern Midlands and the northwest and slightly below elsewhere. They were generally warmer than  January 2004, but cooler than January 2003.

There were cool nights around the 2nd and again around the 16th (and for the following week in inland areas), and a few warm nights around the 12th. But it was the period from the 25th to the 29th that stood out, with above-normal nights across the State.  Geeveston, which has 18 years of minimum temperature observations, had its warmest-ever January night (the temperature did not drop below 18.1 °C on the 25th/26th); the average minimum temperature was also the warmest there for January.
Averaged across the month, minimum temperatures were above normal in most areas, typically by between 0.2 and 0.5 degrees, but slightly below normal at a few northern stations. This was generally warmer than January 2004, but cooler than January 2003.

Total rainfall was below normal in almost all areas, and especially so in the north, northeast, lower Derwent Valley and much of the Midlands. For a number of places (including Launceston, Scottsdale and Devonport) it was the driest January since 1990.
In the north, almost all the rain fell in showers and thunderstorms as a low passed near the State on the 4th and 5th. Launceston City, for example, received 17.6 mm for the month; 17.4 of that fell in the 24 hours to 9 am on the 5th. In other areas, it was thunderstorms on the 27th and 28th that brought most of the rain; Bronte Park received 83 mm in the 24 hours to 9am on the 28th, making it their wettest-ever January day.

The strongest winds were around the 11th to the 16th, when the State was subjected to westerly winds and cold fronts; several sites reported maximum gusts over 100 km/h on those days.

Several outbreaks of thunderstorms were reported, notably the 4th in the north, and the 26th, 27th and 28th in most areas. It is not usual to get so many thunderstorms in January in Tasmania. Lightning strikes were responsible for starting a number of bush and scrub fires. There were also reports of other damage, including a strike on electrical transmission equipment which led to a major power outage in the southeast on the 28th.

Summaries

Summary statistics for January 2005
	Maximum temperatures for January (°C)			Minimum temperatures for January (°C)			Rainfall for January (mm)
	Mean for 2005	Difference from normal	Highest for 2005	Mean for 2005	Difference from normal	Lowest for 2005	Total for 2005	Normal total
Hobart	22.1	+0.5	36.6	12.7	+0.9	7.9	26	48
Launceston	23.5	-0.5	30.6	12.0	0	5.4	18	50
Burnie	21.4	+0.4	25.4	12.8	+0.3	8.1	25	44
Devonport	21.3	+0.4	24.6	12.5	+0.4	6.0	16	44
Swansea	22.4	+0.2	30.6	12.4	+0.8	7.1	35	50
Strahan	20.3	-0.6	32.9	11.0	+0.4	5.0	74	90
Strathgordon	18.3	-1.0	30.4	9.9	+0.4	6.5	168	151
King Island Airport	20.8	+0.3	33.7	12.1	-0.3	4.6	30	37
Flinders Island Airport	21.8	-0.1	28.2	13.9	+0.7	8.6	47	47
Bicheno	21.5	+0.4	28.2	13.1	+0.4	9.8	50	54
Bridport	21.1	-0.7	26.5	12.3	-0.7	7.5
Bull Bay	21.0	-0.2	29.0	12.3	+0.1	8.0	33	52
Bushy Park	24.3	+0.6	36.8	10.2	+0.2	4.1	16	41
Campania	24.1		36.0	11.2		5.0	29
Cape Bruny	19.1	+0.9	34.2	12.2	+0.8	9.3	78	62
Cape Grim	19.0	+0.2	25.0	13.1	0	10.0	31	37
Cressy	24.2		32.0	9.8		1.6	33
Dover	20.8	+0.4	36.4	11.1	+1.0	4.4	48	55
Eddystone Point	21.4	+0.7	25.0	13.6	+0.1	9.3	44	46
Fingal	23.3	+0.3	31.4	10.2	0	2.3	26	45
Friendly Beaches	22.4		29.9	12.9		8.2	44
Geeveston	21.3	-0.2	35.2	11.1	+1.4	4.5	38	57
Grove	22.4	+0.1	35.5	10.9	+1.5	2.8	48	48
Hartz Mountain	16.3		30.8	6.5		2.7	83
Hobart Airport	22.9	+0.6	35.9	12.4	+0.5	6.1	39	42
Lake Leake	19.1	+0.3	29.1	8.9	+0.7	4.1	34	56
Lake St Clair	18.2	-0.9	28.4	6.4	+0.2	0.2	117	110
Launceston Airport	24.1		31.9	10.2		3.8	21
Launceston Airport (old site)	23.4	+0.3	30.8	10.2	+0.1	2.6	23	45
Liawenee	18.0		26.2	4.9		-1.2	33
Low Head	20.1		24.0	14.5		9.3	17
Luncheon Hill	20.8	+0.2	32.4	10.0	-0.2	6.0	39
Maatsuyker Island	17.0	-0.1	30.8	10.5	-0.1	7.6	78	80
Maria Island	21.0		28.3	12.9		9.9	37
Marrawah	20.3	+0.3	28.2	12.2	+0.4	8.7	34	49
Maydena	20.8	-1.4	33.3	9.6	+0.8	3.4	72	65
Melton Mowbray	23.1		35.0	10.2		4.1	17
Moogara	19.5	+0.2	32.0	8.4	+0.1	3.5	29	52
Mount Read	12.9		23.9	5.0		0.4	218
Mount Wellington	15.5		27.8	4.9		-0.1	50	89
Orford	21.7	-0.2	29.3	11.9	+0.2	8.0	48	51
Ouse	24.5		36.3	10.0		3.3	24
Port Arthur	19.0	+0.4	29.3	10.8	0	7.0	83	89
Powranna	24.2	+0.4	32.0	10.4	0	3.4	26	64
Ross	24.5	+0.8	33.5	10.6	+0.2	4.0	42	58
Scamander	21.5	-0.3	30.0	12.7	+0.3	7.0	44	50
Scotts Peak Dam	19.0		33.1	8.7		5.4	122
Scottsdale	22.7	-0.1	30.3	10.2	-0.5	4.2	15	62
Sheffield	21.4		27.3	10.3		5.0	24
Smithton	21.2		27.0	10.6		3.4	17
St Helens	21.8		29.1	13.0		7.9	51
Swan Island	20.6		24.6	14.6		10.8	17
Tarraleah	19.0	-0.1	30.6	7.6	+0.6	1.7	76	71
Tasman Island	17.5		25.4	11.2		7.7	63
Tunnack Fire	20.8		31.9	8.5		2.2	32
Warra	18.1		31.4	8.4		3.7	128
Wynyard	21.4	+0.4	26.6	10.7	-0.3	4.6	33	42

Note

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 10 am on Tuesday 1 February 2005. Although every effort has been made to check them, it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.
"Normals" are based on all available years of record, which vary widely from site to site. Sites without normals do not have sufficient record for them to be calculated reliably.

Further information

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