Monday, 2 February 2009 - Monthly Climate Summary for Tasmania - Product code IDCKGC17R0

Tasmania in January 2009: A month of extremes

Extremely hot, extremely cold, extremely windy and extremely dry conditions were experienced in Tasmania at different times during January. Most notable was the extreme heat on the 29th and 30th when the all time Tasmanian record of 40.8°C was surpassed by six locations. The hottest temperature was 42.2°C at Scamander on the 30th. But back on the 16th, Mount Wellington didn't rise above 2.1 °C — the coldest January day ever recorded in Tasmania. There were also record warm and cold nights, extremely strong wind gusts on the 22nd and golf ball sized hail stones on the 31st. Rainfall was mostly confined to the west, leading to extremely dry conditions in the east.

An archive of previous monthly summaries for Tasmania is also available, as are summaries for other states and many other climate summaries and diagnostics.

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Details

Extreme cold at the start: During the first week of January daytime temperatures were mostly below average, especially on the 1st and 2nd when only a few locations on the East Coast managed to reach 20 degrees and highland snow fell to around 900 metres. Some sites recorded temperatures in the mid 30s on the 13th and 14th, but the 16th was another cold day, and Mount Wellington didn't rise above 2.1°C — making it the coldest January day on record in Tasmania. Temperatures increased from the 18th, and for the rest of the month most days were warmer than usual.

Extreme hot: From the 27th, hot air from the mainland (which was experiencing heatwave conditions) was pushed over Tasmania, although winds were for the most part not especially strong. Temperatures over 40°C were recorded by seven sites on the 29th and 30th. This is only the second time in history temperatures in Tasmania have been so hot on two consecutive days. A new all time Tasmanian record of 41.5°C was set by Flinders Island on the 29th, but on the 30th it was beaten by Ross (41.6°C), St Helens (41.8 °C) and Scamander (42.2°C). The previous Tasmanian record was 40.8 °C at Hobart on 4 January 1976. This has now been exceeded at six locations. Several other sites had their highest temperature on record , with many beating previous records by 2 or 3 degrees. Launceston's previous record of 35.4°C was exceeded on 3 days in a row. Their highest temperature was 39.0°C, which also broke the record of 38.3°C set at Launceston (Pumping Station) in 1912. Over the whole month, mean daytime temperatures ranged from a degree below normal in the west to over 2 degrees above normal in the east. Wynyard has its highest mean maximum temperature for January, and Fingal had its highest since 1988.

Extreme nights: Nights in January were generally cool to cold at the start of the month and warm at the end. A number of sites fell below 2°C on the 2nd, 3rd and 9th and some, including Swansea, had their lowest January temperature on record. Liawenee's −3.6°C early on the 9th was the third-coldest January temperature ever recorded in Tasmania, and Mount Wellington's −3.4 °C on the 2nd wasn't far behind. At the other extreme, temperatures in the last three nights were up to 15 degrees above average. Nowhere in Tasmania fell below 16°C in the 24 hours to 9 am on the 30th — the highest was 24.0°C at Melton Mowbray, making it one of the warmest nights recorded in Tasmania. On the 30th and 31st several sites had their warmest ever night or warmest January night. Devonport, Scottsdale and Mount Wellington were amongst a few locations that had both their coldest and warmest January night on record. Mean minima for the month were mostly within half a degree of average, but a few sites in the northwest and on King Island were up to one and a half degrees below normal.

Extreme wind, fire danger and hail: Extremely strong and gusty northerly winds blew across the state on the 22nd as a deep low pressure system passed to the southwest of Tasmania and an associated cold front approached. Wind gusted to over 100 km/h at several sites, peaking at 150 km/h on Mount Wellington (the non-standard anemometer on Droughty Hill registered 157 km/h). Hobart's gust of 124 km/h was one of the strongest ever recorded there. Widespread damage was sustained across the state and over 27,000 households lost power. Wind blowing across dry lands caused a rare dust storm in southern Tasmania. Extreme fire dangers were felt at several locations in the eastern half of the state — something that also occurred on the 13th, 20th, 28th and 29th. Seldom are so many days of extreme fire danger recorded in a month. There was more extreme weather on the 31st, when severe thunderstorms developed in the northeast of the state and golf ball sized hail caused damage at Gray.

Extremely dry, except in the west: The air flow over Tasmania in January was predominately westerly, and as a result most of the rain fell in the west. Totals for the month ranged from 252.4 mm at Mount Read to just 0.4 mm at St Helens Aerodrome. Many locations in the east and central north had less than 10 mm for the month, and some didn't even receive 5 mm, making it the driest January since the 1960s for some sites, and the driest January on record for Devonport, Forthside and Scamander. Bicheno had its driest month since October 1981, and a number of other eastern locations were their driest since 2001 or 2003. Most sites, however, were not as dry as in the record dry January of 2008.

Further information

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

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Extremes

Hottest day Highest temperature	42.2°C at Scamander on the 30th
Warmest days on average Highest mean daily maximum temperature	26.4°C at Cressy Research Station
Coolest days on average Lowest mean daily maximum temperature	13.2°C at Mount Read
Coldest day Lowest daily maximum temperature	2.1°C at Mount Wellington on the 16th
Coldest night Lowest temperature	−3.6°C at Liawenee on the 9th
Coolest nights on average Lowest mean daily minimum temperature	4.3°C at Mount Wellington
Warmest nights on average Highest mean daily minimum temperature	14.1°C at Swan Island
Warmest night Highest daily minimum temperature	24.0°C at Melton Mowbray (North Stockman) on the 30th
Wettest overall Highest total rainfall	252.4 mm at Mount Read
Driest overall Lowest total rainfall	0.4 mm at St Helens Aerodrome
Wettest day Highest daily rainfall	47.0 mm at Mount Read on the 1st
Highest wind gust	150 km/h at Mount Wellington on the 22nd

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Records

Record highest annual temperature
	Highest temperature in 2009 (°C)		Previous annual highest		Years of record
Launceston Airport Comparison	39.9	on 30 Jan	37.3	on 28 Jan 1943	71
Flinders Island Airport	41.5	on 29 Jan *	38.8	on 25 Jan 2003	48
Burnie (Round Hill)	33.8	on 31 Jan	32.8	on 20 Jan 1982	45
Scottsdale (West Minstone Road)	37.7	on 30 Jan	35.9	on 1 Feb 1983	39
Launceston (Ti Tree Bend)	39.0	on 30 Jan	35.4	on 11 Jan 1982	29
Scamander	42.2	on 30 Jan *	39.8	on 1 Feb 1983	27
Wynyard Airport	35.1	on 31 Jan	32.6	on 3 Feb 2000	25
Fingal (Legge Street)	41.3	on 30 Jan *	38.0	on 25 Jan 2003	24
Lake Leake (Elizabeth River)	36.2	on 30 Jan	33.9	on 25 Jan 2003	20

Marrawah recorded 33.0°C on the 29th, a new January (but not annual) record for them, exceeding the 32.8°C on 3 Jan 1991.
* These locations all exceeded the previous Tasmanian record of 40.8 °C set in Hobart on 4 January 1976. The old record was also exceeded at St Helens (41.8°C), Ross (41.6°C) and Cressy (41.4°C), but they have been open for less than 20 years and so are not included in the table above.

New top fifteen highest temperatures recorded in Tasmania
	Temperature (°C)	Date
Scamander	42.2	30 Jan 2009
St Helens Aerodrome	41.8	30 Jan 2009
Ross (The Boulevards)	41.6	30 Jan 2009
Flinders Island Airport	41.5	29 Jan 2009
Cressy Research Station	41.4	30 Jan 2009
Fingal (Legge Street)	41.3	30 Jan 2009
Hobart (Ellerslie Road)	40.8	4 Jan 1976
Fingal (Legge Street)	40.6	29 Jan 2009
Hobart (Ellerslie Road)	40.6	30 Dec 1897, 1 Jan 1900, 19 Jan 1959
Launceston Airport	40.4	30 Jan 2009
Swansea Post Office	40.4	25 Jan 2003
Hobart (Ellerslie Road)	40.4	20 Jan 1973
Grove (Comparison)	40.4	19 Jan 1959

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Record lowest January daily maximum temperature
	Lowest daily maximum temperature in January 2009 (°C)		Previous lowest for January		Years of record	Average for January
Mount Wellington *	2.1	on the 16th	2.2	on the 21st in 1995	29	13.2

* This is also the coldest January maximum temperature ever recorded in Tasmania. The previous coldest was 2.2°C at Mount Wellington on 21 January 1995.

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Record highest January mean daily maximum temperature
	Mean daily maximum temperature for January 2009 (°C)	Previous highest for January		Years of record	Average for January
Wynyard Airport	23.2	22.9	in 2008	21	21.1

Highest January mean daily maximum temperature for at least 20 years
	Mean daily maximum temperature for January 2009 (°C)	Most recent higher for January		Years since higher	Average for January
Fingal (Legge Street)	25.9	26.4	in 1988	21	23.2

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Record highest annual daily minimum temperature
	Highest daily minimum temperature in 2009 (°C)		Previous annual highest		Years of record
Launceston Airport Comparison	20.7	on 30 Jan	20.0	on 1 Feb 1968	71
Scottsdale (West Minstone Road)	21.3	on 30 Jan	20.0	on 21 Jan 1997	39
Launceston (Ti Tree Bend)	20.9	on 30 Jan	20.3	on 14 Jan 1998	29
Tarraleah Village	20.9	on 30 Jan	20.7	on 12 Dec 1998	28
Fingal (Legge Street)	20.9	on 30 Jan	19.5	on 9 Feb 2001	24

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Record highest January daily minimum temperature (not in annual table)
	Highest daily minimum temperature in January 2009 (°C)		Previous highest for January		Years of record	Average for January
Bicheno (Council Depot)	18.9	on the 31st	18.8	on the 30th in 2003	34	12.8
Mount Wellington	18.5	on the 30th	18.0	on the 16th in 1993	29	4.7
Scamander	19.5	on the 30th	18.4	on the 3rd in 1984	25	12.6

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Record lowest January temperature
	Lowest temperature in January 2009 (°C)		Previous lowest for January		Years of record	Average for January
Swansea Post Office	2.4	on the 3rd	2.7	on the 10th in 1976	53	11.7
Scottsdale (West Minstone Road)	2.2	on the 2nd	2.8	on the 29th in 2007	37	10.7
Mount Wellington	−3.4	on the 2nd	−3.3	on the 22nd in 1995	29	4.7

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Record lowest total January rainfall
	Total rainfall for January 2009 (mm)	Previous lowest for January		Years of record	Average for January
Devonport Airport	7.6	8.1	in 1966	46	42.3
Forthside Research Station	8.2	8.3	in 1966	44	51.0
Scamander	1.8	5.8	in 1979	26	46.5

Lowest total January rainfall for at least 20 years
	Total rainfall for January 2009 (mm)	Most recent lower for January		Years since lower	Average for January
Swansea Post Office	6.8	1.3	in 1957	52	49.4
Eddystone Point	10.8	5.4	in 1960	48	45.2
Lewis Hill (St Pauls River)	3.8	2.5	in 1961	48	43.2
Fingal (Legge Street)	5.2	1.6	in 1966	43	44.0
Lilydale Post Office	12.2	11.0	in 1966	43	49.3
York Plains (Handroyd)	3.4	1.1	in 1966	43	42.0
Avoca (Railway House)	8.0	6.7	in 1966	41	40.2
Bicheno (Council Depot)	1.8	0.0	in 1961	41	52.5
Campbell Town (Elizabeth R)	6.2	3.3	in 1966	21	40.0

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Summaries

In this table, key sites have been highlighted to make them easier to find. This table is very wide and may not fit if printed.

Summary statistics for January 2009
	Maximum temperatures for January (°C)				Minimum temperatures for January (°C)				Rainfall for January (millimetres)
	Mean for January 2009	Diff from average	Highest for January 2009		Mean for January 2009	Diff from average	Lowest for January 2009		Total for January 2009	Average for January	Rank of January 2009	Fraction of January average
Northern (district 91)
Bridport	21.5	−0.3	31.0	30th	12.1	−1.0	4.9	2nd	18.5	56.6	very low	33%
Burnie	21.8	+0.8	33.8	31st	12.6	0.0	5.5	2nd	14.4	42.8	low	34%
Cape Grim BAPS	18.7	0.0	30.5	29th	12.6	−0.4	7.4	2nd	28.2	35.1	average	80%
Cressy Research Station	26.4		41.4	30th	9.2		−0.1	9th	6.6
Devonport Airport	21.5	+0.4	29.7	29th	11.3	−0.9	4.0	3rd	7.6	42.3	lowest	18%
Launceston	25.4	+1.3	39.0	30th	11.9	−0.3	5.2	9th	12.6	46.4	very low	27%
Launceston Airport	25.6		40.4	30th	9.7		1.3	2nd	12.4
Launceston Airport Comparison	24.8	+1.6	39.9	30th	10.3	+0.1	3.3	2nd	13.6	44.1	low	31%
Low Head	19.7	−0.5	26.3	29th	13.6	−0.6	8.7	2nd	7.4	50.5	very low	15%
Marrawah	20.1	+0.1	33.0	29th	11.7	−0.2	6.5	25th	45.8	47.9	average	96%
Scottsdale	23.6	+0.9	37.7	30th	10.1	−0.6	2.2	2nd	11.6	58.1	very low	20%
Sheffield School Farm	23.2	+1.6	37.1	30th	9.3	−1.5	2.3	2nd	20.6	52.4	low	39%
Smithton Aerodrome	21.7	+0.3	36.6	30th	9.7	−1.7	1.4	9th	31.4	38.9	average	81%
Wynyard Airport	23.2	+2.1	35.1	31st	9.8	−1.2	3.3	3rd	18.4	40.6	low	45%
East Coast (district 92)
Bicheno	22.8	+1.5	31.8	20th	13.1	+0.3	7.6	9th	1.8	52.5	very low	3%
Eddystone Point	22.9	+2.1	35.1	29th	12.7	−0.8	6.4	2nd	10.8	45.2	very low	24%
Fingal	25.9	+2.7	41.3	30th	9.5	−0.8	1.1	3rd	5.2	44.0	very low	12%
Friendly Beaches	23.8	+1.1	32.7	20th	12.7	−0.4	6.1	3rd	1.4	61.2	very low	2%
Lake Leake	21.5	+2.3	36.2	30th	7.2	−1.1	−1.3	3rd	15.0	54.9	very low	27%
Maria Island	21.9		30.9	30th	13.2		8.1	2nd	6.0
Orford	23.1	+1.2	36.7	30th	12.3	+0.6	5.4	3rd	8.6	49.3	very low	17%
Scamander	23.8	+1.9	42.2	30th	12.8	+0.2	6.6	3rd	1.8	46.5	lowest	4%
St Helens Aerodrome	24.0		41.8	30th	12.4		5.9	2nd	0.4
Swan Island	20.6		31.9	29th	14.1		8.6	2nd	6.2
Swansea Post Office	23.4	+1.2	33.9	20th	11.4	−0.3	2.4	3rd	6.8	49.4	very low	14%
Midlands (district 93)
Ross	26.1	+1.9	41.6	30th	10.3	−0.2	0.3	3rd	6.6	49.0	very low	13%
Southeast (district 94)
Bull Bay	21.7	+0.7	29.0	13th	11.6	−0.5	6.3	2nd	12.8	50.0	very low	26%
Campania	25.3		38.6	30th	11.6		5.4	3rd	9.0
Cape Bruny	19.0	−0.6	27.2	29th	11.3	−0.8	6.7	2nd	53.8	41.8	average	129%
Cape Bruny Lighthouse	18.2	0.0	26.0	29th	11.4	+0.1	5.0	1st	71.0	62.2	average	114%
Dover	20.4	−0.2	27.1	22nd	9.5	−0.6	5.5	2nd	38.8	54.9	average	71%
Geeveston	21.8	+0.2	34.5	30th	10.0	+0.2	5.0	2nd	66.4	57.8	average	115%
Grove	23.8	+1.5	36.3	30th	10.0	+0.6	3.9	4th
Grove	23.1		36.0	30th	9.2		2.8	4th	28.0
Hobart	23.7	+2.1	33.5	13th	12.6	+0.8	7.1	2nd	9.6	47.7	very low	20%
Hobart Airport	23.5	+1.0	34.4	13th	12.3	+0.3	7.0	2nd	9.4	41.0	very low	23%
Maatsuyker Island Lighthouse	16.0	−1.1	26.7	29th	10.6	−0.1	6.2	3rd	67.4	79.8	average	84%
Melton Mowbray	24.8	+0.9	38.3	30th	11.0	+0.8	3.9	2nd	12.2	29.9	low	41%
Mount Wellington	14.3	+1.1	27.7	30th	4.3	−0.3	−3.4	2nd	23.4	83.3	low	28%
Tasman Island	18.2		29.6	29th	10.6		5.2	2nd	46.8
Tunnack Fire Station	22.9	+1.4	36.9	30th	8.6	−0.2	1.7	2nd	10.2	45.2	low	23%
Derwent Valley (district 95)
Bushy Park	24.8	+1.0	36.0	13th	9.4	−0.7	3.5	2nd	19.8	41.1	low	48%
Maydena Post Office	21.1	−1.1	33.5	30th	8.6	−0.4	4.6	2nd	85.7	63.9	high	134%
Ouse Fire Station	25.5	+0.1	38.7	30th	10.0	−0.1	4.9	2nd	30.8	26.8	average	115%
Tarraleah Village	20.1	+0.7	33.0	30th	7.8	+0.8	2.3	2nd	95.6	70.4	high	136%
Central Plateau (district 96)
Butlers Gorge	18.8	0.0	32.5	29th	6.5	+0.1	1.3	2nd	137.8	98.2	high	140%
Lake St Clair National Park	19.1	−0.2	32.5	30th	6.0	−0.3	0.3	2nd	147.0	107.5	high	137%
Liawenee	19.2		32.0	30th	5.0		−3.6	9th	37.6
West Coast (district 97)
Hartz Mountain	16.3	−1.8	28.6	30th	6.4	−0.8	−0.1	2nd	65.4	67.2	average	97%
Mount Read	13.2	−1.2	28.6	30th	4.9	−0.9	−1.2	2nd	252.4	200.4	average	126%
Scotts Peak Dam	19.1	−1.4	33.2	30th	8.9	−0.4	3.2	2nd	164.0	107.8	high	152%
Strahan Aerodrome	19.6	−1.0	30.3	13th	10.6	−0.1	6.5	2nd	93.6	89.6	average	104%
Strathgordon Village			31.0	30th	9.9	+0.5	4.0	2nd	182.2	152.2	high	120%
Warra	18.6		31.5	30th	8.1		2.4	2nd	145.0
King Island (district 98)
King Island Airport	20.6	0.0	33.4	29th	11.2	−1.3	3.9	18th	21.8	36.5	low	60%
Flinders Island (district 99)
Flinders Island Airport	23.2	+1.2	41.5	29th	12.4	−0.9	4.9	9th	10.2	45.6	very low	22%
Hogan Island	21.9		39.3	29th	13.6		7.9	2nd	9.6
Antarctica and Macquarie Island (district 300)
Macquarie Island	8.6	−0.2	10.6	22nd	5.4	+0.1	2.3	4th	84.2	84.3	average	100%

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Notes

Further information

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

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