Wednesday, 1 March 2006

MONTHLY CLIMATE SUMMARY - TASMANIA

A bit of everything - Tasmania in February 2006

Tasmania's weather had a bit of everything during February 2006: a cold snap that brought snow, hot days followed by thunder, a week of wet weather in the west, and some areas with almost no rain.

Snow starts a cold week: After a cold front crossed on the 6th, showers combined with low temperatures that night (record low at Cape Bruny and Scottsdale) to produce snow that settled below the 900 metre level in the south of the state on the 7th, although it was mostly melted by late morning. Temperatures bounced back on the 8th (sites in the southeast reaching into the mid-20s), but another front cooled things off again until the 14th. Averaged across the month,minimum (overnight) temperatures were mostly within half a degree of normal: above in the west and southeast, but below normal in the north, northeast and inland.

Several warm days: Warm air was often brought across Tasmania between the 14th and the 25th, with several days well into the mid-20s, especially in the east and southeast. The 17th, 24th and 25th were particularly warm. Averaged across the month, maximum (daytime) temperatures were below normal by around half a degree in most areas (by more than a degree in the west), but above normal by about half a degree in the southeast, the Midlands, and on the North West Coast.

Large hail on Bruny: Thunderstorms developed in the south of the State in the afternoon of the 17th, after a warm to hot day. Around 5 pm Cape Bruny was hit by hailstones the size of tennis balls and wind gusts over 100 km/h. Large hail was also reported at Dover and Adventure Bay. While all this was going on, Hobart reported only a few light showers.

Little rain in some areas: The north coast, the southeast and most inland areas were drier than normal, with some areas receiving less than 10 mm of rain for the month. Several days of westerly winds brought near-normal rain to the west; the week from the 6th to the 14th was especially wet. Lows close to the State on the 9th and the 25th  ensured the east coast also had near-normal rain.

Included in this summary are a table of extremes, some new records, and summaries for sites across Tasmania

A separate summary statement for all of summer is also available.

Further information

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

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Extremes

Weather extremes during February 2006
Highest temperature Hottest day	33.1 °C	Ouse Fire Station on 24th
Highest mean daily maximum temperature Warmest days on average	25.0 °C	Cressy Research Station
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature Coolest days on average	12.1 °C	Mount Read
Lowest daily maximum temperature Coldest day	6.0 °C	Mount Read on 10th
Lowest temperature Coldest night	-2.0 °C	Mount Wellington on 7th
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature Coldest nights on average	4.9 °C	Mount Wellington
Highest mean daily minimum temperature Mildest nights on average	14.9 °C	Swan Island
Highest daily minimum Warmest night	21.1 °C	Flinders Island Airport on 25th
Highest total rainfall Wettest overall	177.0 mm	Mount Read
Lowest total rainfall Driest overall	4.4 mm	Low Head
Highest daily rainfall Wettest day	47.2 mm	Birralee Creek on 26th
Strongest wind gust	133 km/h	Mount Wellington on 12th

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Records

Record Lowest Temperature for February
	Lowest temperature in February 2006 (°C)		Previous lowest for February		Years of record
Cape Bruny Lighthouse	2.6	on 7th	3.3	on 2nd in 1977	80
Scottsdale (West Minstone Road)	1.4	on 7th	1.8	on 27th in 1982	34

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Summaries

Summary statistics for February 2006
	Maximum temperatures for February (°C)			Minimum temperatures for February (°C)			Rainfall for February (mm)
	Mean for 2006	Difference from normal	Highest for 2006	Mean for 2006	Difference from normal	Lowest for 2006	Total for 2006	Normal total	Ranking
Hobart	22.1	+0.4	31.2	12.8	+0.8	6.8	21	40	normal
Launceston	24.2	-0.2	31.0	11.4	-0.5	5.9	16	28	normal
Burnie	22.0	+0.9	24.7	13.3	+0.2	8.7	8	46	very low
Devonport	22.0	+0.7	26.7	11.7	-0.6	5.1	9	37	low
Swansea	22.4	+0.2	29.3	12.1	+0.4	7.4	55	42	high
Strahan	19.7	-1.5	29.5	11.1	0	5.0	71	66	normal
Strathgordon	17.8	-1.7	28.2	9.6	0	5.2	125	111	normal
King Island Airport	20.3	-0.7	29.2	12.3	-0.6	5.1	30	31	normal
Flinders Island Airport	21.9	-0.7	29.3	14.7	+1.1	7.8	10	39	low
Bicheno	21.8	+0.4	26.8	12.7	-0.2	7.1	38	57	normal
Bridport	21.6	-0.6	25.6	12.3	-0.8	4.7	12	29	low
Bull Bay	21.5	+0.2	28.5	12.2	-0.4	6.0	16	42	low
Bushy Park	23.7	-0.1	32.1	9.8	-0.2	3.6	17	35	low
Campania	24.1		32.4	12.1		5.3	29
Cape Bruny	18.3	-0.1	24.6	12.2	+0.6	2.6	57	57	normal
Cape Grim	19.2	-0.2	23.5	13.5	-0.3	9.3	25	36	normal
Cressy	25.0		31.6	8.9		1.6	16
Dover	20.0	-0.6	24.9	10.5	+0.2	4.9	37	52	normal
Eddystone Point	22.5	+1.4	27.8	14.0	-0.1	6.9	31	46	normal
Fingal	22.7	-0.2	30.3	8.9	-1.0	2.5	25	40	normal
Friendly Beaches	22.7		27.3	13.0		7.2	38
Geeveston	20.8	-1.3	30.0	10.4	+0.7	3.4	30	50	normal
Grove	21.9	-0.4	31.1	9.6	+0.2	2.8	21	46	low
Grove	22.4		31.1	9.2		2.1	23
Hartz Mountain	15.0	-2.6	26.4	6.8	-0.6	0.8	35	64	normal
Hobart Airport	22.8	+0.5	32.3	12.9	+1.0	7.9	20	36	normal
Lake Leake	19.4	+0.4	27.4	7.7	-0.5	1.2	29	46	normal
Lake St Clair	7.8	-1.4	27.3	6.6	+0.7	0.3	42	84	low
Launceston Airport	24.5		31.3	10.1		2.9	15
Launceston Airport Comparison	23.7	+0.6	30.8	9.5	-0.8	2.4	18	39	low
Liawenee	17.6		25.7	5.0		-1.7	19
Low Head	20.9		24.4	14.5		9.8	4
Luncheon Hill	19.2	-1.8	27.4	10.1	-0.6	5.4	54	61	normal
Maatsuyker Island	16.5	-0.7	25.1	11.3	+0.3	7.2	59	71	normal
Macquarie Island	9.2	+0.5	10.4	5.9	+0.6	3.6	108	86	high
Maria Island	21.6		27.5	13.5		8.6	30
Marrawah	19.8	-0.9	26.7	12.3	0	7.5	54	45	high
Maydena	20.2	-2.2	29.0	8.8	0	4.1	46	67	normal
Melton Mowbray	22.8	-0.9	31.1	9.9	-0.3	2.5	19	33	low
Moogara	19.0	-0.7	28.4	8.5	0	2.5	30	51	normal
Mount Read	12.1	-1.9	22.0	5.5	-0.6	0.0	177
Mount Wellington	13.1	-0.6	21.3	4.9	-0.5	-2.0	40	80	normal
Orford	22.1	+0.1	28.9	12.6	+0.6	6.7	44	45	normal
Ouse	24.1		33.1	9.8		1.7	7
Powranna	24.4	+0.5	31.6	10.0	-0.6	3.7	17	34	low
Ross	24.9	+0.9	32.1	10.0	-0.5	1.9	16	38	low
Scamander	21.2	-0.7	28.2	12.7	0	7.0	36	34	normal
Scotts Peak Dam	18.2		30.3	8.9		3.9	75
Scottsdale	22.8	-0.2	29.1	10.2	-0.8	1.4	13	39	low
Sheffield	21.5	+0.4	28.0	10.3	-0.2	5.2	10	37	low
Smithton	21.0	-0.7	25.4	10.0	-1.5	2.6	18	37	low
St Helens	21.5		28.7	12.6		6.3	37
Swan Island	20.9		24.3	14.9		9.3
Tarraleah	19.3	-0.4	29.1	7.3	+0.4	1.0	32	61	low
Tasman Island	18.1		26.6	11.5		5.3	47
Tunnack	21.2		28.0	9.2		2.9	21
Warra	17.4		25.9	8.3		2.7	69
Wynyard	22.3	+1.0	25.4	10.6	-0.6	3.7	10	50	very low

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Note

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 8 am on Wednesday 1 March 2006 . 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 shown do no have sufficient record for them to be calculated reliably.

The "Ranking" indicates about where rainfall this time ranks in the climate record for the site.

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Further information

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

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