Monday, 3 March 2014 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Tasmania - Product code IDCKGC27R0

Tasmania in summer 2013-14: a warm, dry and windy season

After a relatively cool start to summer, Tasmania had some hot days through January and February, and was warm overall. Rainfall was below average in most parts of the state. There were several days with strong and damaging winds

• A relatively dry summer in most parts
• Warmer than average days, after a cool start
• Warmer than average nights
• Several windy days

Separate summaries have also been prepared for December 2013, January 2014 and February 2014.

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

A relatively dry summer in most parts

Much of December, and the first week of January, saw Tasmania under the influence of persistent westerly winds. These brought rain to the western half, but left the southeast and parts of the north relatively dry. During late January and into February high pressure systems came to dominate and brought little rain. Some troughs crossing during February brought locally very heavy falls, but some areas on the North Coast had almost no rain (apart from the odd day with a fraction of a millimetre) after 6 January. Thunderstorms and heavy rain associated with the passage of a trough on the evening of 15 February gave a few sites near the Midlands their highest summer daily rainfall on record.

Overall, most parts of the state had a relatively dry summer, with the East Coast, the Central North and the northern Midlands markedly drier than usual. A few sites had their lowest total summer rainfall on record or their lowest total summer rainfall for many years.

Mount Read recorded 162.6 mm in the 24 hours to 9 am on 21 February, the wettest day the site has recorded in its 18-year history. Unfortunately a data outage at this remote site means several values from early January are missing, so while the true total for the season is unknown it was at least 669.0 mm. The highest total from a site with no missing values is 555.4 mm nearby at Lake Margaret Power Station

Warmer than average days, after a cool start

Westerly winds and frequent cold fronts in the first five weeks of summer prevented temperatures getting especially high in Tasmania, and there were some very cool days: Bridport's 15.0 °C on 21 December was the coolest summer day ever recorded there. There was also unseasonably cold weather on 20 and 21 February, especially in the west where a sudden change to cold, wet and windy weather was implicated in the death of a tourist near Cradle Mountain.

From mid-January there were several days when hot air was drawn from the mainland across Tasmania ahead of cold fronts. One of the most significant multi-day heatwaves on record affected southeast Australia from 13 to 18 January (as detailed in Special Climate Statement 48); in Tasmania the main impact was in the western half. Bushy Park reached 40.2 °C on the 14 January and Melton Mowbray 40.1 °C. Later in the month Hobart Airport reached 39.7 °C on 28 January. These temperatures are all in the top 50 ever recorded in Tasmania (many of the others in that top 50 are either from 4 January 2013, or late January 2009). Mount Wellington had a record high temperature of 29.8 °C on 14 January, Lake St Clair's 33.9 °C two days later was also a record, whilst Scotts Peak Dam's 38.6 °C on 14 January equalled the highest temperature ever observed at any site in western Tasmania.

Taken across the season, daytime maximum temperatures were above the long-term average at all sites, typically by about one degree.

Warmer than average nights

Relatively cool nights were prevalent through December and January, but were less common in February. The lowest temperature was right at the end of the season when Liawenee dipped to -2.8 °C on 28 February, but Mount Wellington had -2.5 °C on 6 December and Liawenee fell to -2.2 °C on 3 January. There were several mild nights, with the most marked 15 January when Flinders Island Airport dipped to only 22.3 °C and Liawenee to 21.0 °C.

Overall, overnight minimum temperatures were close to the long-term average, but most areas were a little warmer than usual for summer.

Several windy days

There were many windy days through summer, and damage resulted on several occasions. The elevated and very exposed Mount Wellington recorded gusts to 128 km/h on 29 December, 165 km/h on 2 January and 156 km/h on 9 February. Many other sites reported gusts in excess of 100 km/h through the season, although these were less common in February.

Damage was particularly marked on 9 February, especially in the south where fallen trees, power outages, structure damage and blocked roads were common. A man was killed when a falling tree hit a car on the Channel Highway just north of Margate

Hobart: a warm, dry and windy summer

Hobart's mean daily maximum temperature for the summer was 22.6 °C, which is 1.4 °C above the long-term average but below the record 23.3 °C from last year. The highest temperature for the summer was 38.9 °C on 28 January (the equal-16th warmest temperature recorded in Hobart), which was one of the 8 days above 30 °C this summer (the long-term average is about 5 such hot days). The coldest day was 15.3 °C on 20 December.

Nights were also warmer than usual in Hobart, with a mean daily minimum temperature for the summer of 12.4 °C, which is 0.8 °C above average. The coldest temperature was 7.7 °C on the morning of 6 December, whilst the warmest night was 2–3 February, when it stayed above 20 °C (the minimum reported was 18.9 °C, the temperature it had been at 9 am on the 2nd).

Hobart had a total of 72.0 mm of rain over the summer, just half the long-term average of 143.4 mm. Each month was relatively dry (28.2 mm in December, 16.2 mm in January and 27.6 mm in February). The heaviest burst of rain was on the evening of 15 February, when over 18 mm was recorded in the city.

Strong and gusty winds affected Hobart through December and early January, with several gusts over 80 km/h. The strongest wind for the season was on 9 February, when a gust to 130 km/h was recorded at the Bureau's observation site in Ellerslie Road, Battery Point. This equals the record summer gust from 1 January 1979. It is also the strongest gust recorded using the current instrument, which was installed in 1994, although short of the 150 km/h (recorded using a different instrument) on 28 September 1965.

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Extremes in summer 2013-14
Hottest day	40.2 °C at Bushy Park (Bushy Park Estates) on 14 Jan
Warmest days on average	25.2 °C at Ouse Fire Station
Coolest days on average	14.4 °C at Mount Wellington and Mount Read
Coldest day	3.1 °C at Mount Read on 10 Dec 2013
Coldest night	-2.8 °C at Liawenee on 28 Feb 2014
Coolest nights on average	5.1 °C at Mount Wellington and Liawenee
Warmest nights on average	14.3 °C at Swan Island
Warmest night	22.3 °C at Flinders Island Airport on 15 Jan 2014
Warmest on average overall	18.3 °C at Launceston (Ti Tree Bend)
Coolest on average overall	9.7 °C at Mount Wellington
Wettest overall*	669.0 mm* at Mount Read 555.4 mm at Lake Margaret Power Station
Driest overall	46.0 mm at Swansea (Francis Street)
Wettest day	162.6 mm at Mount Read on 21 Feb 2014
Highest wind gust	165 km/h at Mount Wellington on 2 Jan 2014

*Note that some reports are missing from Mount Read during January, and the actual total is almost certainly higher. Strathgordon Village has the highest total without missing values.

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

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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

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Record highest summer daily rainfall
	Highest daily rainfall in summer 2013-14 (mm)		Previous wettest for summer		Years of record
Below Craigbourne Dam (Coal River)	64.4	on 16 Feb 2014	55.4	on 31 Jan 2012	21
Mount Morriston (Macquarie River)	87.4	on 16 Feb 2014	61.4	on 18 Jan 2010	21
Ross (Macquarie River)	46.6	on 16 Feb 2014	39.8	on 29 Jan 2004	21

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Record lowest total summer rainfall
	Total rainfall for summer 2013-14 (mm)	Previous driest for summer		Years of record	Average for summer
Campbell Town (Elizabeth R)	54.2	57.4	in 2002	25	123.9
Deviot Jetty	61.0	69.0	in 2009	22	144.4

Lowest total summer rainfall for at least 20 years
	Total rainfall for summer 2013-14 (mm)	Most recent summer at least this dry		Years since drier	Average for summer
Frankford (Rossville)	74.4	60.1	in 1980	33	168.2
Launceston (Ti Tree Bend)	59.7	57.1	in 1983*	29	123.6
Barrington Post Office	102.8	92.8	in 1987	26	184.0
Westbury (Birralee Road)	64.6	52.8	in 1983*	25	131.1

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

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Record highest summer temperature
	Highest temperature in summer 2013-14 (°C)		Previous warmest for summer		Years of record	Average for summer
Mount Wellington	29.8	on 14 Jan 2014	29.6	on 25 Feb 1995	34	12.7
Lake St Clair National Park	33.9	on 16 Jan 2014	33.0	on 20 Jan 1997	24	18.6

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Record lowest summer daily maximum temperature
	Lowest daily maximum temperature in summer 2013-14 (°C)		Previous coolest for summer		Years of record	Average for summer
Bridport (Sea View Villas)	15.0	on 21 Dec 2013	= 15.0	on 8 Feb 2008	20	21.3

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Record highest summer mean daily maximum temperature
	Mean daily maximum temperature for summer 2013-14 (°C)	Previous warmest for summer		Years of record	Average for summer
Lake Leake (Elizabeth River)	20.1	= 20.1	in 2000	23	18.7

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

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Summary statistics for summer 2013-14
	Maximum temperatures for summer (°C)				Minimum temperatures for summer (°C)				Rainfall for summer (millimetres)
	Mean for summer 2013-14	Diff from average	Highest for summer 2013-14		Mean for summer 2013-14	Diff from average	Lowest for summer 2013-14		Total for summer 2013-14	Average for summer	Rank of summer 2013-14	Fraction of summer average
Northern (district 91)
Bridport (Sea View Villas)	21.6	+0.3	31.0	15 Jan 2014			4.5	6 Dec 2013	112.0	127.3	average	88%
Burnie (Round Hill)	21.7	+1.1	30.2	18 Jan 2014	13.0	+0.6	5.3	6 Dec 2013	104.0	152.1	low	68%
Burnie NTC AWS	19.7		29.0	28 Jan 2014	13.6		8.1	6 Dec 2013
Cape Grim	18.5		27.6	28 Jan 2014	13.0		8.4	1 Dec 2013	103.8
Cape Grim BAPS (Comparison)	18.7	+0.1	27.4	28 Jan 2014	13.0	+0.1	8.5	6 Dec 2013	95.2	115.7	average	82%
Cressy Research Station	24.4	0.0	35.4	14 Jan 2014	9.3	-0.3	1.4	30 Dec 2013	58.6	100.9	low	58%
Devonport Airport	21.3	+0.5	27.4	9 Feb 2014	11.8	0.0	3.2	6 Dec 2013	73.5	131.7	v low	56%
Launceston (Ti Tree Bend)	24.8	+1.0	34.6	14 Jan 2014	11.8	+0.1	5.0	30 Dec 2013	59.7	121.6	v low	49%
Launceston Airport	24.5		35.7	14 Jan 2014	9.7		3.4	14 Dec 2013	64.2	99.3	v low	65%
Low Head	20.3	+0.2	25.9	2 Feb 2014	13.8	0.0	7.8	6 Dec 2013	52.4	113.4	v low	46%
Marrawah	19.9	+0.1	32.8	15 Jan 2014	11.9	+0.2	7.2	5 Dec 2013	109.0	156.6	low	70%
Scottsdale (West Minstone Road)	23.1	+0.9	33.8	15 Jan 2014	10.4	0.0	3.9	6 Dec 2013	110.2	162.9	low	68%
Sheffield School Farm	21.9	+0.8	32.2	15 Jan 2014	9.8	-0.3	4.4	5 Dec 2013	93.4	151.6	v low	62%
Smithton Aerodrome	21.4	+0.5	34.1	15 Jan 2014	10.6	-0.2	2.9	22 Jan 2014	116.2	134.4	average	86%
Wynyard Airport	21.6	+0.7	31.8	15 Jan 2014	10.6	-0.1	3.5	14 Dec 2013	117.6	155.9	average	75%
East Coast (district 92)
Bicheno (Council Depot)	21.2	+0.2	33.0	9 Feb 2014	12.6	+0.1	7.9	6 Dec 2013	104.4	179.5	low	58%
Fingal (Legge Street)	23.8	+1.2	37.5	14 Jan 2014	8.9	-0.8	1.4	5 Dec 2013	63.8	131.9	low	48%
Friendly Beaches	22.9	+0.4	37.3	9 Feb 2014	12.2	-0.5	7.6	6 Dec 2013	121.0	159.9	low	76%
Lake Leake (Elizabeth River)	20.0	+1.3	33.0	14 Jan 2014	7.4	-0.4	0.8	22 Jan 2014	83.2	171.1	v low	49%
Larapuna (Eddystone Point)	21.2	+0.6	31.6	9 Feb 2014	13.6	+0.2	7.8	6 Dec 2013	98.2	151.6	low	65%
Maria Island (Point Lesueur)	20.6		32.2	9 Feb 2014	13.0		8.0	6 Dec 2013
Orford (Aubin Court)	21.5	+0.1	36.4	28 Jan 2014	11.3	-0.2	6.4	9 Jan 2014	52.8	156.6	v low	34%
Spring Bay NTC AWS	20.3		33.8	28 Jan 2014	12.9		7.8	5 Dec 2013
St Helens Aerodrome	22.1	+0.3	35.6	9 Feb 2014	12.4	-0.3	6.4	6 Dec 2013	102.6	160.0	low	64%
Swan Island	20.6	+0.2	29.4	9 Feb 2014	14.3	-0.1	8.3	6 Dec 2013	99.4	132.5	low	75%
Swansea (Francis Street)	22.5		38.6	9 Feb 2014	11.3		5.9	1 Dec 2013	46.0
Midlands (district 93)
Ross (The Boulevards)	24.6	+0.9	37.1	14 Jan 2014	9.4	-0.5	0.9	8 Jan 2014	73.0	121.1	low	60%
Southeast (district 94)
Bull Bay (Lauriston)	21.1	+0.4	37.5	28 Jan 2014	11.6	-0.2	6.7	11 Dec 2013	93.0	150.1	low	62%
Campania (Kincora)	24.0	+0.3	39.2	14 Jan 2014	10.6	-0.2	4.3	28 Feb 2014	77.4	102.6	low	75%
Cape Bruny (Cape Bruny)	19.4	+0.1	29.6	28 Jan 2014	11.5	-0.2	6.2	11 Dec 2013	114.6	161.3	low	71%
Cape Bruny Lighthouse	18.7	+0.7	29.1	28 Jan 2014	11.4	+0.2	6.0	1 Dec 2013	123.0	194.3	low	63%
Dennes Point	21.4		37.7	28 Jan 2014	12.3		7.8	6 Dec 2013	63.6
Dover	20.5	+0.4	35.1	28 Jan 2014	9.6	-0.2	3.4	6 Dec 2013	127.8	173.9	low	73%
Dunalley (Stroud Point)	21.4		38.1	28 Jan 2014	12.7		8.1	6 Jan 2014	74.8
Geeveston (Cemetery Road)	21.8	+0.6	37.4	28 Jan 2014	10.0	+0.5	3.3	5 Feb 2014	154.8	176.0	average	88%
Grove (Research Station)	22.7		38.3	14 Jan 2014	9.0		3.3	5 Feb 2014	120.6	154.4	low	78%
Hobart (Ellerslie Road)	22.6	+1.4	38.9	28 Jan 2014	12.4	+0.8	7.7	6 Dec 2013	72.0	143.4	low	50%
Hobart Airport	22.9	+1.1	39.7	28 Jan 2014	11.8	+0.2	6.5	3 Jan 2014	67.4	128.4	low	52%
Maatsuyker Island Lighthouse	17.0	+0.3	30.3	17 Jan 2014	11.0	+0.5	5.5	11 Dec 2013	214.0	239.5	average	89%
Melton Mowbray (North Stockman)	24.0	+1.0	40.1	14 Jan 2014	9.2	-0.6	2.2	8 Jan 2014	89.8	101.7	average	88%
Mount Wellington	14.4	+1.7	29.8	14 Jan 2014	5.1	+0.8	-2.5	6 Dec 2013
Tasman Island	17.8	+0.5	30.9	9 Feb 2014	10.9	-0.1	5.9	12 Dec 2013	121.6	177.5	low	69%
Tunnack Fire Station	21.2	+0.4	35.3	14 Jan 2014	8.1	-0.3	0.0	28 Feb 2014	76.6	140.6	low	54%
Derwent Valley (district 95)
Bushy Park (Bushy Park Estates)	25.1	+1.8	40.2	14 Jan 2014	9.6	-0.1	2.8	5 Dec 2013	98.0	126.1	low	78%
Maydena Post Office	22.1	+0.7	37.2	14 Jan 2014	8.4	0.0	3.2	8 Jan 2014	198.9	212.5	average	94%
Ouse Fire Station	25.2	+0.7	39.6	14 Jan 2014	9.4	-0.2	1.7	28 Feb 2014	89.6	92.4	average	97%
Central Plateau (district 96)
Butlers Gorge	19.6	+1.5	33.8	14 Jan 2014	6.1	+0.1	-1.6	28 Feb 2014	331.4	302.7	average	109%
Lake St Clair National Park	19.9	+1.3	33.9	16 Jan 2014	5.6	-0.2	-1.4	28 Feb 2014	385.2	314.4	high	123%
Liawenee	19.0	+1.4	32.3	16 Jan 2014	5.1	+0.5	-2.8	28 Feb 2014	83.6	155.4	v low	54%
West Coast (district 97)
Cape Sorell	19.5	+1.6	32.5	14 Jan 2014	12.3	+0.7	8.1	1 Dec 2013	156.4	217.5	low	72%
Hartz Mountain (Keoghs Pimple)	17.4	+0.7	34.9	14 Jan 2014	6.8	+0.3	0.3	6 Jan 2014	183.2	196.8	low	93%
Low Rocky Point	18.9		33.9	17 Jan 2014	11.2		5.4	1 Dec 2013	242.6	244.1	average	99%
Mount Read	14.4	+1.0	30.4	16 Jan 2014	5.7	+0.4	-1.1	6 Dec 2013
Scotts Peak Dam	21.2	+1.1	38.6	14 Jan 2014	9.0	+0.1	4.2	6 Dec 2013	383.2	328.4	high	117%
Strahan Aerodrome	21.0	+0.6	38.0	14 Jan 2014	10.2	-0.1	4.5	8 Jan 2014	258.4	242.5	average	107%
Warra	19.5		35.5	14 Jan 2014	7.4		1.6	5 Feb 2014	358.4	320.7	average	112%
King Island (district 98)
King Island Airport	20.9	+0.6	37.6	28 Jan 2014	12.2	0.0	4.6	28 Feb 2014	66.4	117.9	v low	56%
Flinders Island (district 99)
Flinders Island Airport	22.5	+0.9	39.4	9 Feb 2014	13.3	+0.3	5.0	1 Dec 2013	128.0	142.3	average	90%
Antarctica and Macquarie Island (district 300)
Macquarie Island	8.5	+0.1	11.2	19 Feb 2014	4.9	-0.1	-0.1	1 Dec 2013	304.0	249.6	high	122%

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

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