Monday, 2 May 2005

MONTHLY CLIMATE SUMMARY - TASMANIA

A very warm month - Tasmania in April 2005

Campania recorded 32.0 °C on the 1^st of April, heralding one of the warmest Aprils Tasmania has experienced - one that was warmer than March. Average maximum (day time) temperatures were above normal by between 1.5 and 2 degrees, and average minimum (night time) temperatures were above normal by between 1 and 1.5 degrees. Rainfall was close to normal in most parts of Tasmania, although it was well down in the far southeast and on Flinders Island.

The warm weather combined with the only moderate rainfall totals has put further pressure on soil moisture which has been severely reduced in recent months, especially in the northwest. Many sites in the northwest (including Burnie, Wynyard and Barrington) have had their driest September-to-April on record.

April 2005 was the warmest April recorded in Australia since at least 1950. The first four months of 2005 have been much warmer than normal in most parts of Australia, but Tasmania had a generally cool January, February and March.

Included in this summary are a table of State extremes, some more details, some new records, and summaries 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 April 2005
Highest temperature Hottest day	32.0 °C	Campania (Kincora) on 2nd Highest April temperature ever recorded in Tasmania
Highest mean daily maximum temperature Warmest days on average	20.8 °C	Swansea Post Office
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature Coolest days on average	9.6 °C	Mount Read
Lowest daily maximum temperature Coldest day	3.2 °C	Mount Wellington on 14th
Lowest temperature Coldest night	-4.4 °C	Liawenee on 15th
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature Coldest nights on average	2.6 °C	Liawenee
Highest mean daily minimum temperature Mildest nights on average	13.5 °C	Swan Island
Highest daily minimum Warmest night	19.4 °C	Flinders Island Airport on 10th
Highest total rainfall Wettest overall	273.6 mm	Mount Read
Lowest total rainfall Driest overall	14.4 mm	Flinders Island Airport
Highest daily rainfall Wettest day	47.6 mm	Mole Creek on 9th

Details

The month started very warm, with a new highest Tasmanian April temperature of 32.0 °C being set at Campania on the 1st. This exceeded the previous high of 31.7 °C at Grove on the 12^th in 1985. Several other sites in also set new records on that day, or on the 2^nd (see below). A week of cooler weather followed, with an especially cool day on the 7^th, but another burst of warmth followed, with more records broken on the 10th. After a cool spell on the 14^th and 15^th, there followed a fortnight with temperatures just a little above normal. Another warm spell peaked on the 28^th, with temperatures well into the mid-20s in several areas, but this was followed by a much cooler end to the month.
Averaged across the month, most sites recorded maximum temperatures between 1.5 and 2 degrees above the April normal. At almost all places it was warmer in April than it had been in March. Several locations in the east had their warmest April on record (see below), and for several others in the east it was the warmest for at least 12 years. However, for most of the north and west, it was warmer in 2002 than it was this year.

Minimum (night-time) temperatures were above normal by a degree or more on most nights, with the mornings of the 1^st, the 3^rd and the 10^th especially warm. There were some cooler periods around the 5^th, the 15^th, the 21^st and at the very end of the month.
At almost all places nights were warmer on average in April than they had been in March. For many, April 2003 was warmer than April 2005, but at some (Maydena, Grove and Launceston Airport) the most recent warmer April was in 1994, and for others (Hobart Airport, Lake Leake and Marrawah) it was in 1990.

Cold fronts were responsible for most of the rainfall during April. These were spread throughout the month, although most events gave only light or moderate totals. The biggest falls were in the north on 8^th and 9^th, from thunderstorms and heavy showers.
Totals for the month were close to normal in most areas. In the southeast they were down on normal, especially at Cape Bruny at Port Arthur. Flinders Island also had totals well below normal, with the Airport site having its driest April since 1958. Rain was also below normal along the north coast was below normal. A few sites in the Midlands had above-normal totals, having received some solid rain around the 3^rd, the 18^th and the 23^rd.

There were many windy days through April, and both the start and the end of the month were particularly windy, with gusts well in excess of 100 km/h reported at many sites. The highest recorded was 154 km/h at Maatsuyker Island on the 29^th.

Records

Record Highest Mean Maximum Temperature for April
	Mean daily maximum temperature for April 2005 (°C)	Previous highest for April		Years of record
Swansea Post Office	20.8	20.4	in 1994	49
Grove	19.4	= 19.4	in 1993	48
Eddystone Point	19.9	19.5	in 2002	47
Hobart Airport	20.0	19.8	in 1993	47
Flinders Island Airport	20.5	20.3	in 1989	42
Bicheno	20.4	20.2	in 1973	31
Mount Wellington	10.2	10.0	in 2002	24
Tarraleah Village	16.1	15.9	in 2002	21
Wynyard Airport	19.0	= 19.0	in 2002	20

Record Highest Temperature for April
	Highest temperature in April 2005 (°C)		Previous highest for April		Years of record
Bushy Park	30.6	on 1st	30.5	on 4th in 1992	71
Swansea Post Office	30.1	on 1st	29.3	on 6th in 1978	49
Eddystone Point	26.5	on 10th	25.0	on 23rd in 1993	47
Hobart Airport	30.7	on 1st	30.1	on 4th in 1992	47
Flinders Island Airport	31.7	on 10th	30.6	on 10th in 1969	42
Orford	30.0	on 1st	28.0	on 5th in 1988	37
Marrawah	27.0	on 2nd	23.5	on 3rd in 1989	31
Scottsdale	26.5	on 2nd	26.2	on 4th in 1992	27
Mount Wellington	19.2	on 9th	18.6	on 7th in 2001	24
Tarraleah Village	25.5	on 2nd	= 25.5	on 12th in 1985	21
Fingal	28.7	on 2nd	27.8	on 5th in 1987	20
Wynyard Airport	26.5	on 1st	23.4	on 1st in 2003	20

Summaries

Summary statistics for April 2005
	Maximum temperatures for April (°C)			Minimum temperatures for April (°C)			Rainfall for April (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	19.0	+1.7	29.7	9.6	+0.6	5.3	35	52
Launceston	19.8	+1.0	26.8	8.3	+0.9	2.4	38	52
Burnie	18.9	+1.2	25.2	11.1	+1.2	7.4	41	76
Devonport	18.4	+1.0	24.9	9.6	+1.3	4.2	33	62
Swansea	20.8	+2.2	30.1	8.8	+0.5	3.0	32	52
Strahan	17.7	+1.4	27.6	9.7	+1.5	2.2	130	110
Strathgordon	15.6	+1.4	26.2	7.9	+1.0	1.0	161	203
King Island Airport	19.5	+2.1	29.4	11.1	+1.0	5.6	46	55
Flinders Island Airport	20.5	+1.9	31.7	12.2	+1.4	3.9	14	60
Bicheno	20.4	+1.6	30.4	11.1	+0.8	6.1	44	61
Bridport	18.8	+0.7	25.8	10.8	+1.6	5.2	49	57
Bull Bay	19.1	+1.9	26.5	10.2	+0.6	5.6	23	48
Bushy Park	19.5	+1.6	30.6	5.9	-0.3	-1.7	47	47
Campania	20.6		32.0	8.2		2.0	45
Cape Bruny	17.3	+1.9	25.2	10.5	+0.9	5.2	34	80
Cape Grim	18.0	+1.8	24.0	12.0	+0.9	6.0	51	63
Cressy	18.7		27.5	6.8		0.1	48
Dover	18.5	+1.8	28.6	7.8	+0.6	1.3	29	67
Eddystone Point	19.9	+1.9	26.5	12.2	+0.8	7.6	32	66
Fingal	19.6	+1.2	28.7	5.8	+0.4	-1.4	36	53
Friendly Beaches	20.3		31.4	10.7		5.0	42
Geeveston	18.6	+1.5	28.5	7.1	+1.0	-0.9	48	63
Grove	19.4	+1.9	30.7	6.6	+0.4	-0.3	38	62
Grove	19.3		30.4	6.2		-1.0	41
Hartz Mountain	12.5	+1.8	21.9	5.2	+1.0	-0.4	56	61
Hobart Airport	20.0	+2.0	30.7	9.9	+1.2	6.0	31	44
Lake Leake	15.8	+1.7	23.4	5.3	+1.2	0.1	52	71
Lake St Clair	14.7	+1.8	23.5	3.8	+1.1	-3.3	127	131
Launceston Airport	19.3		27.6	7.8		3.3	42
Launceston Airport (old site)	18.6	+1.3	26.4	7.4	+0.8	1.7	42	54
Liawenee	13.8		22.2	2.6		-4.4	56
Low Head	18.0		23.1	12.0		7.3	45
Luncheon Hill	17.0	+1.6	26.3	9.4	+1.6	4.1	109	95
Maatsuyker Island	15.5	+1.0	25.5	10.2	+0.7	5.6	89	110
Maria Island	18.9		25.0	11.4		8.4	36
Marrawah	18.0	+1.2	27.0	11.2	+0.9	5.0	80	86
Maydena	17.4	+1.5	28.5	6.0	+0.8	-1.5	78	88
Melton Mowbray	19.1		30.2	6.8		0.4	45
Moogara	15.7	+2.2	25.6	6.5	+1.4	1.9	63	63
Mount Read	9.6		18.3	4.0		-0.9	274
Mount Wellington	10.2	+2.1	19.2	3.0	+1.1	-3.2	55	85
Orford	20.0	+1.6	30.0	8.8	+0.5	4.1	46	60
Ouse	19.6		30.5	5.9		-1.9	54
Powranna	18.3	+0.5	22.2	7.5	+1.5	1.9	45	43
Ross	19.1	+1.9	28.9	7.3	+1.9	2.0	50	40
Scamander	19.7	+0.9	28.9	10.1	+0.6	4.2	61	72
Scotts Peak Dam	15.5		24.5	7.0		0.5	86
Scottsdale	18.6	+0.6	26.5	8.9	+1.1	2.9	73	83
Sheffield	17.6		27.3	7.9		2.4	62
Smithton	18.8		27.5	8.3		1.9	46
St Helens	19.3		28.1	10.0		3.4	38
Swan Island	18.8		24.2	13.5		9.1	32
Tarraleah	16.1	+2.2	25.5	5.7	+1.7	0.8	87	96
Tasman Island	16.7		24.5	10.2		5.0	37
Tunnack	16.6		28.3	6.4		-2.2	48
Warra	15.2		25.4	7.0		0.4	113
Wynyard	19.0	+1.7	26.5	7.9	+1.1	1.5	63	75

Note

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 11 am on Monday 2 May 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