Wednesday, 1 March 2006

SEASONAL CLIMATE SUMMARY - TASMANIA

Wet and cool in the west, dry and warm in the east - Tasmania in summer 2005-06

Summer (the three months from December to February) brought a dazzling range of weather to Tasmania.

A wet and windy start: Strong westerly winds were common through December and into January, with wind gusts well in excess of 100 km/h registered at many locations. The westerlies also brought plenty of rain to the western half of Tasmania, giving some sites their wettest December for many years. Totalled across summer, rainfall was above normal in the southwestern highlands (near record at some sites), below normal along the northern East Coast, but close to normal in most areas.

Thunderstorms and hail: There were plenty of thunderstorms during summer, with spectacular lightning displays across the State on the morning of the 20 January. Hail 2 cm in diameter was reported in the southeast on 4 January, but this was trumped on 17 February when hailstones over 6 cm fell at Cape Bruny.

Cold snap: A cold front brought snow below the 900 metre level on 7 February. This was the start of a week of cold weather, although temperatures did reach into the mid-20s on the 8th. Such rapid and dramatic changes are a common (and sometimes dangerous) feature of Tasmania's weather. The snap produced a record cold night at Cape Bruny. Averaged across the summer, minimum (overnight) temperatures were above normal by about half a degree; a little more in the southeast.

Some hot days: It is rare to have several hot days in a row in Tasmania, and this summer was no exception. The hottest day was 22 January, when temperatures neared 40 in the southeast of the State and some records were almost broken. At most sites, there were about the same number of hot days as normal for summer (for example, 4 days over 30 °C in Hobart, and 3 days over 30 °C in Launceston). Averaged across summer, maximum (daytime) temperatures were above normal by a few tenths of a degree in most places (a little more in the southeast), but below normal by the same amount in the west.

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

Separate summaries are available for each of the months December 2005, January 2006 and February 2006. A summary of last summer has also been archived on this site.

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 summer 2005-06
Highest temperature Hottest day	39.9 °C	Hobart Airport on 22nd Jan
Highest mean daily maximum temperature Warmest days on average	24.4 °C	Ross (The Boulevards)
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature Coolest days on average	12.8 °C	Mount Read
Lowest daily maximum temperature Coldest day	4.3 °C	Mount Read on 3rd Jan
Lowest temperature Coldest night	-2.4 °C	Liawenee on 5th Jan
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature Coldest nights on average	4.6 °C	Mount Wellington
Highest mean daily minimum temperature Mildest nights on average	14.5 °C	Swan Island
Highest daily minimum Warmest night	21.6 °C	Flinders Island Airport on 27th Jan
Highest total rainfall Wettest overall	925.4 mm	Mount Read
Lowest total rainfall Driest overall	79.2 mm	Tunbridge (Austin-Vale)
Highest daily rainfall Wettest day	70.0 mm	Strathgordon (Gordon Power Station) on 31st Dec 2005

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Records

Record Lowest Temperature for summer
	Lowest temperature in summer 2005-06 (°C)		Previous lowest for summer		Years of record
Cape Bruny Lighthouse	2.6	on 7th Feb 2006	3.3	on 2nd Feb 1977	78

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Near-record highest summer rainfall

Lake Margaret Power Station's 723.8 mm and Strathgordon Village's 697.4 mm represent the wettest summer at those sites since 1986/7.
A total of 342.0 mm at Macquarie Island was the wettest summer there since 1951.

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Near-record highest temperature

22 January saw several "near-record" temperatures:
Strathgordon's 34.3 °C was the highest temperature there since the record 34.8 °C on 2 February 1982.
Hobart Airport's 39.9 C was the highest temperature there since the record 40.1 °C on 3 January 1991.
The 40.6 °C reported at Campania (which would have been equalled the 2nd-highest temperature ever recorded in Tasmania) has since been discounted because the Stevenson screen protecting the thermometer was probably open.

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Summaries

Summary statistics for summer 2005-06
	Maximum temperatures for summer (°C)			Minimum temperatures for summer (°C)			Rainfall for summer (mm)
	Mean for 2005-06	Difference from normal	Highest for 2005-06	Mean for 2005-06	Difference from normal	Lowest for 2005-06	Total for 2005-06	Normal total	Ranking
Hobart	22.0	+0.9	38.8	12.7	+1.1	6.8	130	145	normal
Launceston	23.6	0	33.1	11.9	+0.4	5.3	129	124	high
Burnie	21.1	+0.5	27.7	13.1	+0.7	8.0	150	154	normal
Devonport	20.7	+0.1	26.7	12.1	+0.5	5.1	141	134	normal
Swansea	22.9	+1.3	37.3	12.3	+0.9	6.8	132	153	normal
Strahan	20.0	-0.3	33.5	10.9	+0.6	5.0	338	235	high
Strathgordon	18.6	-0.1	34.3	9.5	+0.3	4.2	697	464	very high
King Island Airport	20.4	+0.5	35.5	12.3	+0.3	5.1	111	116	normal
Flinders Island Airport	22.1	+0.6	35.4	14.1	+1.2	4.5	131	144	normal
Bicheno	22.1	+1.3	32.2	12.7	+0.2	6.3	101	182	low
Bridport	21.0	-0.5	29.0	12.9	+0.6	4.7	108	132	low
Bull Bay	21.3	+0.6	32.5	11.8	0	6.0	127	158	normal
Bushy Park	23.5	+0.3	38.9	10.0	+0.3	3.6	156	128	high
Cape Bruny	19.0		34.4	12.0		6.7	189
Cape Bruny Lighthouse	18.6	+0.7	33.0	12.4	+1.3	2.6	219	195	normal
Cape Grim BAPS	18.8	+0.4	25.3	13.0	+0.2	9.3	119	114	normal
Cressy Research Station	24.0		33.1	9.6		1.6	142
Dover	20.3	+0.4	29.5	10.4	+0.6	3.6	176	180	normal
Eddystone Point	21.8	+1.5	27.8	13.6	+0.3	6.9	110	153	low
Fingal	22.8	+0.3	37.2	9.5	-0.1	1.9	134	133	normal
Friendly Beaches	23.1		33.1	12.9		7.2
Geeveston	21.1	+0.1	37.9	10.4	+0.9	3.4	197	179	normal
Grove (Comparison)						2.8	138	157	normal
Grove	22.2		38.7	9.2		2.1	143
Hartz Mountain	16.0	-0.8	33.0	6.5	0	0.8	212
Hobart Airport	22.7	+1.0	39.9	12.6	+1.1	7.1	125	131	normal
Lake Leake	19.4	+1.0	32.2	8.0	+0.2	-0.3	141	174	normal
Lake St Clair	18.3	-0.2	32.6	6.3	+0.6	0.3	394	327	high
Launceston Airport	23.5		33.4	10.2		2.9	122
Launceston Airport Comparison	22.9	+0.5	33.1	9.9	+0.1	2.4	128	135	normal
Liawenee	17.7		29.8	5.1		-2.4	246
Low Head	19.9		24.6	14.1		8.9	103
Luncheon Hill	19.6	-0.4	32.5	10.0	+0.3	5.4	261	237	normal
Maatsuyker Island	16.7	0	28.1	11.1	+0.8	6.9	245	241	normal
Macquarie Island	9.2	+0.8	13.6	5.8	+0.9	2.1	342	247	very high
Maria Island	21.6		31.1	13.3		8.6	122
Marrawah	19.7	0	29.0	12.1	+0.6	7.5	179	158	normal
Maydena	20.5	-0.9	36.5	8.9	+0.6	2.4	322	223	highest
Melton Mowbray	22.9		38.7	9.9		2.5	122	102	normal
Moogara	19.0	+0.1	34.5	8.4	+0.5	2.5	201	166	normal
Mount Read	12.8	-0.5	27.0	5.1	-0.2	0.0	925
Mount Wellington	13.5	+0.9	29.2	4.6	+0.3	-2.0	183	256	normal
Orford	21.9	+0.5	35.2	12.2	+0.8	6.7	145	161	normal
Ouse	23.9		38.1	9.8		1.7	125
Powranna	23.6	+0.2	34.5	10.3	+0.4	3.7
Ross	24.4	+1.0	35.0	10.0	+0.2	1.5	101	134	normal
Scamander			36.5			6.3	97	146	low
Scotts Peak Dam	19.0		33.6	8.9		3.9	436
Scottsdale	21.9	-0.3	32.3	10.7	+0.4	1.4	132	169	normal
Sheffield	20.7		29.2	10.3		5.2	188
Smithton	20.7	-0.1	29.8	10.9	+0.1	2.6	151
St Helens	22.0		35.2	12.7		6.3	129
Swan Island	20.3		25.9	14.5		9.3
Tarraleah	19.3	+0.4	33.6	6.9	+0.2	1.0	259	224	high
Tasman Island	17.8		26.6	11.4		5.3	169
Tunnack	20.8		35.3	8.9		0.5	142
Warra	17.9		34.5	8.3		1.7	397
Wynyard	21.3	+0.8	28.2	11.0	+0.6	3.7	170	153	normal

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Note

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 10 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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