Summer 2014-15 on average

Wildflower photo

Commelina cyanea in Monash Street

This summer, January was no warmer than December or February, and none of these months was as warm as November! The number of hot days (over 35°) had a similar pattern that “sagged” in midsummer: Oct: 4 days; Nov: 10 days; Dec: 7 days; Jan: 2 days; Feb: 3 days; Mar: 2 days (in the first week). There were no very hot days over 40° this summer, although there had been three in spring.

A very cool spell from late January to early February had day and night temperatures 4.5° degrees lower than normal. Humidity was also low at that time and earlier, in mid-December.

Weather log for summer 2014-15

By most measures, this was a normal summer. Compared with the 21st century average, the daily maximum temperature and the daily temperature range were both just one degree low, and skies were a little more cloudy. The dew point (humidity) was low, but much higher than last summer.

The rainfall of 224 mm could hardly be more “normal”. It lies between the 125-year average of 227 mm and the 125-year median value of 221 mm. Summer rainfall totals like this also occurred in 2002-03 (227 mm) and 2008-09 (229 mm). Historically, summer rainfall totals in the “normal” range from 220 mm to 230 mm occurred in 1902-03, 1917-18, 1936-37, 1948-49, and 1957-58.

Climate for summer 2014-15.


Data. Rainfall data is from Manilla Post Office, courtesy of the Post-master, Phil Pinch. I thank Phil for his help over the years. When he retires this March, there is some uncertainty about the future of rainfall observations that have been maintained for 132 years since March 1883.

 Temperature, including subsoil at 750 mm, and other data are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla.

December 2014 rainy with warm nights

Photo of a rain-shower

A shower on Mt Baldwin

Few days or nights were unusually warm or cool, except for a very cold day on the 28th. Thunderstorm clouds were often seen, but only a few yielded any rain. Later, overcast skies brought steady rain recorded on the 27th (25.2 mm) , 28th (11.2 mm) and 29th (12.6 mm). There were fourteen rain days: twice the usual number.

Weather log December 2014

Comparing December months

The mean daily maximum temperature (31.8°) was normal, but the mean daily minimum temperature (18.0°) was very high (Very warm nights!), just below the record of 18.6° set in 2009.
Subsoil temperature (24.7°) fell to normal after two Decembers above normal.
The total rainfall of 99.0 mm was in the 72nd percentile, well above the average of 74 mm. This clears most of the shortages in rainfall totals for groups of months. Two serious shortages remain: the nine month total of 306 mm is in the 8th percentile, and the eighteen month total of 659 mm is in the 6th percentile.

Climate for December 2014

The Year 2014

This year had the warmest nights (11.34°) of the new century. Although the days, at 26.67°, were cooler than in 2002 (26.72°), this year had also the warmest mean temperature: 19.01°. The second-warmest, at 18.85°, was 2009 and the coolest, at 17.19°, was 2008.
The subsoil temperature: 20.5°, fell back to near average.
In the year, 39% of the mornings were cloudy (more than four octas of cloud). This is close to the recent average (40%) for 2007 to 2014, but much more cloudy than the earlier average (26%) for 2000 to 2006.
The rainfall, 447 mm, was second lowest in the new century, after 2002 (366 mm). In the long-term rainfall record, this is a serious, but not severe deficiency: it is in the 8th percentile.


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 December 2014

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla
“December 2014 rain again”

Trends to December 2014

December data (orange)

From November to December, the raw anomaly value for daily maximum temperature returned to normal from extremely high. Rainfall anomaly moved from very dry to rather wet. Most other anomalies came back to near zero, where they had been (as smoothed values) in June 2014, six months earlier.
Temperature range became low while daily minimum temperature remained high. (Which causes which?)

Fully smoothed data (red)

The latest fully-smoothed data (June 2014) mainly show a renewed movement towards drought.


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.

Normal values are based on averages for the decade from March 1999.* They appear on these graphs as a turquoise (turquoise) circle at the origin (0,0). A range of anomalies called “normal” is shown by a dashed rectangle in aqua (aqua). For values in degrees, the assigned normal range is +/-0.7°; for cloudiness, +/-7%; for monthly rainfall, +/-14 mm.

 * Normal values for rainfall are based on averages for the 125 years beginning 1883.

Spring 2014 dry and hotter

Weather log for spring 2014

Warm weather developed in early October, followed by a cool spell with one rain day of 26.4 mm. After that came three hot spells. There were showers and storms in the district, but little more rain fell at Manilla.
This spring was slightly hotter than spring 2013 and spring 2009, but not as hot as spring 2002. The air was not as extremely arid (dew point 3.6°) as in last spring (dew point 2.3°), and skies were a little more cloudy.
The total rainfall of 69.8 mm was in the 8th percentile: the 10th lowest spring rainfall. (Spring 2002 had been equal 5th lowest at 66 mm, and spring 1957 the lowest at 23 mm.) Rain fell on 11 days: more than in spring of 2002 (9 days), but fewer than in 2013 (13).

Climate for spring 2014


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

3-year trends to November 2014

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla
“November 2014 more droughty”

Trends to November 2014

November data (orange)

The raw anomaly value for daily maximum temperature became extremely high: +5.1°. (The record positive anomaly was +5.6°, set in November 2009.) There were also extreme “droughts” values for high daily minimum temperature, high daily temperature range and low monthly rainfall. Values for cloudy days, dew point and subsoil temperature were near normal.

Fully smoothed data (red)

The latest fully-smoothed data (May 2014) complete the season of autumn 2014. The movement away from the mild drought of late 2013 ended in this month. Rainfall was rather low, skies rather cloudy, dew point low (near a new “normal”), temperature range and subsoil temperature normal.
Contrariwise, the smoothed anomaly of daily minimum temperature peaked in May 2014, showing a more maritime climatic episode.


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.

Normal values are based on averages for the decade from March 1999.* They appear on these graphs as a turquoise (turquoise) circle at the origin (0,0). A range of anomalies called “normal” is shown by a dashed rectangle in aqua (aqua). For values in degrees, the assigned normal range is +/-0.7°; for cloudiness, +/-7%; for monthly rainfall, +/-14 mm.

 * Normal values for rainfall are based on averages for the 125 years beginning 1883.