Topic: Melbourne, Sydney sweltering in the New Year 2006

[Brad Hannon]

Hi all and Happy New Year I just got home from a night out with friends.  It truly is an amazing period of weather down here at the moment.  We just had our hottest December on record and finished the year off with a top of 43 (parts of Melbourne).  The most amazing phenonemon however has been the fluctuations in temperature throughout the day and into the night.  Thanks to a northerly it was 35C in Viewbank (NE Melbourne) at 1.00am when I got home and is now 34.2C.  The BOM initially forecast 42C for Saturday but refined that early on Sat, to a predicted top of 33C predicting southerly seabreezes would keep the heat in check.  However that theory was blown away by 3pm and by 6.30pm it was 42.7C!  Throughout the evening the wind in the city shifted several times and the temp clearly dipped and rose by up to 5 degrees (my estimate) accordingly each time.  Truly amazing weather.  There is some chance of t-storms in the morning but im not counting my chickens 

here is a link to the Viewbank BOM data:

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDV65360/IDV65360.95874.shtml

[australiasevereweather]

Brad,

The heatwave has shifted to New South Wales and Sydney is in for very hot and dry conditions. it is already within the 43 to 44C mark across most suburbs at 2pm!

Not bad for early January. I guess a blasting southerly change will affect the region later this evening.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Beatart]

Hi Guys,
Camden (near Sydney in NSW) topped 43.8 degrees on the home thermometer and 32.8 degrees as per weatherzone today (01/01/06). We are now receiving (2200hrs) the southerly as promised which has so far produced wind gusts up to 68km/h and has dropped the temperature to 28.4 degrees.

What a welcome relief

Justin.

[Brad Hannon]

Welcome to the forum Justin,

Sure is warm up north tonight! Back to 'normal' overnight temps here in Melbourne tonight.  I doubt I will ever witness 35C at 1.00am here ever again.

Brad

[Jeff Brislane]

Good to see you again Justin! Does anybody know how many records fell with this heatwave? I know Sydney had it's hottest New Years Day ever.

[Jeff Brislane]

Also on monday after the change went through Penrith on Sunday night after it hit 44.4 degrees here we had our top temp for monday at 12:01 am of 24 degrees! The daytime top was only 22 which was exactly half of what it was the day before!

Jeff.

[Matthew Piper]

Numerous records fell across NSW on Sunday, however most of the weather stations dont have very long histories. Here are some of the most notable.

Sydney Airport reached an all time record of 45.2 degrees. It apparently has only been operational since the end of 1939 so it missed the infamous Black Friday temperatures of January that year.

Observatory Hill achieved the 2nd highest ever temperature recorded (44.2) coming in behind the January 1939 event (45.3).

Ulladulla reached 43.8 degrees which was its highest ever temperature recorded since the AWS became operational in 1989.

Narooma reached 43.5 degrees which is the highest ever temperture recorded since weather observations started there in 1910.

[Jeff Brislane]

That's quite a few records for coastal areas Matt. It's notable that Sydney reached such high temps on Sunday. Other heatwaves in the low fortys out in the western suburbs have often seen observatory hill just on the other side of the seabreeze and a few degrees lower. The same often is true for the airport as well.

Jeff.

[Geoff Thurtell]

Sunday was one of those very rare days where the seabreeze did not penetrate inland at all. It probably had something to do with the intensity of the southerly buster that came through later in the night.

Regards,

Geoff

[Beatart]

Thanks Jeff, and hello to you all,
For overall yearly temperatures, I found this on the BOM site,

Australia has officially recorded its warmest year on record. Data collected by the Bureau of Meteorology indicate that the nation’s annual mean temperature for 2005 was 1.09°C above the standard 1961-90 average, making it the warmest year since reliable, widespread temperature observations became available in 1910. The previous record of +0.84°C was set in 1998. While these temperature departures may seem relatively small, a 1°C increase in mean temperatures is equivalent to many southern Australian towns shifting northward by about 100km.

This could be a good thing, I could be moving to Gosford or Erina without having to move!, but seriously, if this trend keeps going, Australia could be a very hot place to live in another 50 years or so. Not surprisingly, the NT recordered the highest annual temperature increase of 1.45deg with NSW coming in 4th with a 1.34deg overall increase (Melbourne came in 6th with a 0.77deg increase).

Justin.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Justin,

Keeping away from global warming debates on this forum, yes the extremes are incredible. I do think that NW Sydney did not reach maximums of 45 to 48 because the main 850hPa thickness centred on regions near Wollongong allowing for the SE suburbs and not traditonally getting high temperatures as western and northwestern Sydney to match or exceed their temperatures. The air was also significantly drier in this southern region.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Matthew Piper]

Here are the MesoLAPS 850hPa temperature maps for the 1st Jan. You can see a very well defined tongue of high temperatures extending from Tibooburra to the NSW south coast which is where the majority of the records occurred.

[David C]

Well it sure was hot!

I decided to meet Paul (Hector) and head to the central Coast for a swim. Well a veil of smoke to the north was the first sign to change plan. The second was a police car speeding past us on the F3 near Brooklyn with a sign on the roof (F3 closed). Anyways, we were trapped just south of the bridge for some 1.5 hours. The aircon in Paul's car had a fit at one stage so there seemed no escape. Traffic did crawl to Brooklyn and was diverted back to Sydney. I took a few shots of the smoke plumes eg:

[David C]

Went with Sarah to Bilgoola beach afterwards til sunset with smoke plumes visible to the north from the Woy Woy fire.
Again met Paul after his church service with a plan to catch the southerly from Long Reef. In the end we were content to watch odds and ends being blown up the street while eating deep fried ice cream in a chinese restaurant at Avalon - you beauty!!

[Jimmy Deguara]

Pheww - lucky I didn't go then David - I thought it was Curl Curl we were supposed to go. Central Coast beaches though are awesome and I know how Paul loves the Central Coast.

Better pics than I got from my perspective.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara