3-year trends to March 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Now cool and wet”Trends to March 2013.

While raw values of temperature anomalies were not as low as in February, March was further towards cool, moist conditions than December or January, or any months since July.

Fully-smoothed data points (red) for September 2012 continued to move towards drought. The dew point anomaly reached a seventh successive new record low: -3.37 degrees.

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.

3-year trends to February 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Suddenly colder”Trends to February 2013.

Temperatures, both max and min, fell from very high in January to very low in February. Daily temperature range and rainfall remained normal. Dew point remained very low, while cloudiness and subsoil temperature remained high.

Winter 2012

Fully-smoothed data (in red) reveal that the trend in winter, as in autumn, was towards “droughts” (top right) for all variables except subsoil temperature (which peaked). Mean values over winter, however, were very different:
* Subsoil temperature: very high;
* Cloudiness and temperature range: rather high;
* Maximum temperature and rainfall: normal;
* Minimum temperature: rather low;
* Dew point: extremely low.
In August, dew point anomaly again reached a new record low: -3.21 degrees.

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.

Cool February 2013

The daily weather logWeather log February 2013.

Hardly any days or nights in February were warmer than normal. The daily maximum temperature of 23.6° on the 2nd was 10.1° below normal. (But one day in February 2009 reached only 17.8°!) The weekly mean temperature remained below normal by between one degree and five degrees.
Sunny days with low humidity came mainly early in the month. There were seven rain days (normal), but the highest reading was only 16.4 mm, on the 24th.

 Comparing February monthsClimate February 2013.

Mean maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures were low, like last February, but not quite as low as February 2008. As a rule, February in Manilla is practically as hot as January, but this time it was 6 degrees cooler.Record low morning dew points show the air was very dry, which is strange when there was more than usual cloud and rain.

The total rainfall (58.0 mm) was in the 56th percentile, just below the mean of 66.8 mm. Among rainfall totals for groups of months, only that for 12 months (490 mm) is below the median value.


Data. Rainfall data is from Manilla Post Office, courtesy of Phil Pinch. Temperatures, including subsoil at 750 mm, and other data are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla.

 

3-year trends to January 2013

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla

“Hot nights; hot subsoil”Trends to January 2013.

Extreme heat and aridity in early January 2013 did not persist. The maximum temperature anomaly remained high, but the only other high anomalies were a very high minimum temperature and subsoil temperature.
Cloudy skies returned, after some months near the normal for 1999 to 2009.

Fully-smoothed data (in red) for July 2012 have again reached new records for low Dew Point anomaly (-2.92 degrees) and for high subsoil temperature anomaly (+2.07 degrees).

Note: Fully smoothed data – Gaussian smoothing with half-width 6 months – are plotted in red, partly smoothed data uncoloured, and raw data for the last data point in orange. January data points are marked by squares. Blue diamonds and the dashed blue rectangle show the extreme values in the fully smoothed data record since September 1999.

January 2013 very hot, then wet

The daily weather logWeather log January 2013.

Days were sunny and extremely hot in the first three weeks. Saturday the 12th had the highest temperature on this record: 43.2°. Later, days were cloudy, and the maximum temperature on the 28th was only 21.3°. That was 12.6° below normal, and the second coldest January day. Most nights were warmer than normal, helping to make the weekly average of 30.3° on the 10th the second hottest, after a week in November 2009.
Only a few showers had fallen until the 27th, when ex-tropical cyclone Oswald brought 89 mm in three days of steady rain.

 Comparing January monthsClimate January 2013.

Unlike recent arid months, March was near normal in day-time temperature, humidity and cloudiness. Nights were very warm, however .

The total rainfall of 101.6 mm is almost twice the March average of 53 mm, and in the 85th percentile. March has been wetter in nineteen years, including 2001 (103 mm) and 2007 (114 mm). Taking rainfall totals for more than one month, the greatest shortages are not serious (i.e. not below the 10th percentile). The twelve-month total (469 mm) is in the 14th percentile. Other totals have higher percentile values, and most totals for 30 months or more are above normal.


Data. Rainfall data is from Manilla Post Office, courtesy of Phil Pinch. Temperatures, including subsoil at 750 mm, and other data are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla.