Monday, 2 December 2013 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Tasmania - Product code IDCKGC17R0

Tasmania in spring 2013: wet and windy, with cool days and mild nights

Spring brought a variety of weather to Tasmania, but overall it was wet with cool days and relatively mild nights.

• A wet spring for most of Tasmania
• Mostly cool days
• Some low temperatures, but mild by night overall
• Damaging westerly winds

Summaries have also been prepared covering each of the months of spring: September, October and November. The 2013 Annual Climate Summary for Tasmania will be published on Friday 3 January 2014.

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

A wet spring for most of Tasmania

Rainfall was above average for almost all of Tasmania, and very much above average in parts. There were a few pockets of average rain, notably in the eastern north around Waterhouse, and the western coastal strip. September was generally wetter than usual (although not as extreme as August), with some heavy falls in both the west and the northeast: Gray (Haven of Hope) received 119 mm in the 24 hours to 9 am on the 18th. October was dominated by westerly winds and was much wetter than usual across the west and into the southeast. November brought three heavy rain events that gave the east a very wet month (Gray had 258 mm in the 24 hours to 9 am on the 13th), but was relatively dry in the west.

Some sites (including Launceston) had their highest total spring rainfall on record, or their highest for many years. The wettest confirmed total for spring was Strathgordon Village with 963.7 mm; Mount Read received at least 1248 mm, but the exact total is not known as the gauge was affected by snow during September. The driest overall was Mount Morriston (Macquarie River) with just 178.4 mm for spring; Hobart Airport also missed out on several rainy events during September and had just 180.0 mm over spring.

Mostly cool days

With rain and cloud a common feature of spring, daytime temperatures were below average in most parts of the state. It was a mixed spring: September had relatively warm days, whilst October was mostly cooler than average despite some hot days. November was quite cool, especially in the southeast where mean maxima for November were close to those for September. Spring 2013 was also markedly cooler than spring 2012.

Friendly Beaches had the hottest day of spring with 30.7 °C on 20 October, and several sites reached the high 20s on 6 November. At the other extreme, on 11 September Mount Wellington only reached −3.1 ° and the next day it reached only −1.7 °C.

Some low temperatures, but mild by night overall

Although days were cool, overnight minimum temperatures were above the spring average in most areas, and especially so in the north and east. September had particularly mild nights, October was generally warm, and November's overnight temperatures were somewhat mixed. Even though most nights were relatively mild, there was plenty of cold nights as well, with several inland sites having their lowest recorded spring temperature on September 12 or 13. Liawenee dropped to −7.0 °C on 12 September, then −8.8 °C on the 13th.

Damaging westerly winds

Strong, gusty and damaging westerly winds were frequently observed during September and October. The strongest wind gusts for spring were at Hogan Island in northern Bass Strait with 161 km/h on 26 September and 157 km/h on the 28th, and Spring Bay recorded a gust to 143 km/h on 2 October.

Hobart

Hobart's mean daily maximum for spring of 17.1 °C was 0.2 °C above the long-term average. Hobart's warmest month was October, with November just 0.2 °C warmer than September (on average November is about 3.6 °C warmer than October in Hobart). The mean overnight minimum was 1.0 °C above the long-term average at 8.8 °C. Rainfall of 240.6 mm was almost double the 121.8 mm received in spring 2012, above the long-term average of 169.6 mm, but well short of the 400.9 mm from spring 1957. As elsewhere, damaging wind gusts were a feature of spring, with a peak gust in the city of 102 km/h on 5 October.

* Mount Read received at least 1248 mm, but the gauge was affected by snow during September and the true total there is not known.

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