Friday, 1 November 2013 - Monthly Climate Summary for Tasmania - Product code IDCKGC17R0

Tasmania in October 2013: a wet, windy month

Persistent and strong westerly winds controlled Tasmania's weather during October 2013, bringing above-normal rain to the west, cool days, mild nights and wind damage.

• very wet in the west
• cooler days, apart from the east
• milder nights
• unusual number of windy days

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

Very wet in the west

Continuing the pattern seen over the last several months, persistent westerly winds frequently brought rain, with cold fronts embedded in those westerlies ensuring there was well-above normal rain in the western half of Tasmania during October. Mount Read recorded 618 mm for the month, whilst Strathgordon Village had 548 mm. Several sites in the west had their wettest October for several decades. There were also some very wet days scattered through the month, with a few sites registering their highest October daily rainfall on record.

Rain was close to normal along the north coast and in the east, with several sites on the East Coast recording less than 40 mm for the month.

Cooler days, but some hot weather

Cool days were more common than warm ones during October, but there were a few warm days. Warm weather on the 5th, 16th, 18th to 20th and 28th was swamped by marked cold spells near the start of the month, around the 14th, and from the 21st to the 26th. For most places, mean daily maximum temperatures were below average for October, typically by about half a degree. Only in the east and southeast were days a little warmer than usual.

The hottest weather was on the 20th, when several sites in the east reached into the high 20s and Friendly Beaches recorded 30.7 °C. Several times during the month elevated sites struggled to reach 10 °C, and on the 17th Mount Wellington reached only 0.8 °C.

Many mild nights, but some cold

Despite the many cool days, overnight temperatures were mostly above average in Tasmania during October, typically by about half a degree, although some patches in the south had a cool month. There were several mild mornings, notably on the 5th, around the 10th and around the 20th.

On the morning of the 20th, Friendly Beaches did not drop below 16.6 °C, Strahan Aerodrome remained above 15.9 °C, and Cape Grim reported its warmest October daily minimum temperature. At the other extreme, Mount Wellington dropped to -5.6 °C on the 14th and Liawenee hit -4.3 °C on the 7th.

Unusually windy, even for October

Spring often brings windy weather to Tasmania, but October 2013 was especially windy. Many times through the month there were trees brought down, power outages or other damage due to wind. The 2nd saw gusts over 100 km/h at sites across the state, with a peak of 143 km/h at Hogan Island (in northern Bass Strait) and Spring Bay on the East Coast and 127 km/h at Cape Grim.

There were more windy days than usual. For example Hobart had 10 days with a gust over 80 km/h (compared to an average of about 3 days each October), Strahan had 6 days with a gust over 80 km/h (October average less than 2 days), and Wynyard had 8 days with a gust over 70 km/h (October average about 2 days). Even when not gusty the wind was persistent: it was above 30 km/h about 25% of the time in Hobart (compared to an October average of about 10%), with similar stories elsewhere.

Mild, wet and windy in Hobart

Strong westerly winds were perhaps the main feature of Hobart's weather in October 2013. The strongest gust was 102 km/h on the 5th, and there were 10 days with a gust over 80 km/h, the greatest number of such gusty days in any month since the current anemometer was installed in 1994. Southeasterly winds, often indicating a sea-breeze in Hobart, occurred less than half as frequently as usual for October, whilst winds over 30 km/h were more than twice as frequent as usual for October.

Although Hobart had some cool days, the mean daily maximum of 17.7 °C was 0.7 °C above the long-term average for October. There were 9 days over 20 °C (the same amount as in the very mild September), with the highest 26.7 °C on the 19th. The coldest day was on the 24th with 12.9 °C; the long-term average is to have two days in October below 12 °C in Hobart.

There were cold nights through the month in Hobart, with the coldest 3.3 °C on the morning of the 7th. But there were also plenty of mild nights: on 9 occasions it didn't drop below 10 °C, and although it went below 5 °C twice this is less than the historical average of 5 such cold nights. The mean daily minimum temperature of 8.5 °C was 0.7 °C above the long-term average.

Hobart's 106.6 mm of rain for the month was above the long-term average of 62 mm, and much more than the 40 mm recorded in September, or the 29 mm from October 2012. It was Hobart's wettest October since 2001, and its wettest month since April 2011 (although not much wetter than the 101 mm in July this year).

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

Maps
	Observed	Anomaly	Decile rank
Total rainfall
Mean daily maximum temperatures
Mean daily minimum temperatures

Click on a map to show it full size in a pop-up window

* note: there are gaps in the historical record at this site, so it is possible a higher value has gone unreported.

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top