Tag Archives: climate

August 2011: rain still scarce

Posted in Manilla NSW, Monthly weather by

The daily weather logWeather log August 2011.

There were warm sunny days early and late in the month. Otherwise, days were often cold and cloudy, with a bit of rain. Of four foggy mornings, the 28th had fog that kept visibility below 800 metres until 11 am.
Temperatures were never far from normal. Two years ago, August 2009 had one daily maximum (31.8°) which was 11.4° above normal and one daily minimum (18.2°) which was 14.0° above normal.
The highest rainfall reading was quite low: 8.2 mm, recorded on the 18th. There were ten rain days, four more than usual, but the total was only 30.8 mm.

 Comparing August monthsClimate August 2011.

Mean temperature readings were above normal by half a degree. The mean early morning Dew Point (1.9°) was 0.6° lower than normal, indicating low humidity.
With only nine frosts (below +2.2° in the Gill screen), this was the least frosty August of thirteen.
Fifty-five percent cloudy mornings equalled the August record, set in 2008.
The rainfall of 30.8 mm is fairly low, in the 44th percentile for August. Rainfall totals for 3, 4, 5 and 6 months have percentile values lower than 10, making them serious rainfall shortages. Totals for larger groups of months continue to be near normal. The 12-month total (691 mm) is well above the median, being in the 61st 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.

 

Dry air and little rain in July 2011

Posted in Manilla NSW, Monthly weather by

The daily weather logWeather log July 2011.

Despite a series of cloudy cold days in the middle of the month, most features of the weather in July were normal. Days got as warm as 20° at each end of the month, and never went lower than 11.7°. Nights were neither very warm nor very cold. There were 17 frosts, the coldest being -3.7°.
Humidity and rainfall recall the drought year of 2002.
Extremely low humidity was shown by the early morning Dew Point on the 12th, of 6.2°. This was the lowest July value since 2002, which had four lower values, down to 6.7°.
The highest rainfall reading was only 4 mm, recorded on the 20th. Four rain days totalled 6.4 mm.By the end of the month there had been 39 days with less than 5 mm of rain.

 Comparing July monthsClimate July 2011.

Mean temperature readings were normal. The mean early morning Dew Point (- 0.6°) was the lowest July value since 2002 (- 1.4°).
For frosts, this month was normal. Since 1999, the most frosty July was in 2002, with 27 frosts, down to -5.1°. The least frosty was 2010, with 12 frosts, down to only -1.4°.
The rainfall of 6.4 mm is very low: on the 8th percentile for July. Only ten Julies in 127 years have been drier. (July 2002 and July 1940 were equal driest, at 1 mm.) Rainfall totals for 2, 3, 4 and 5 months are in the 5th, 10th, 9th and 10th percentiles respectively. Percentile values lower than 10 are serious rainfall shortages. Totals for larger groups of months continue to be near 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.

 

June 2011 rather cool and dry

Posted in Manilla NSW, Monthly weather by

The daily weather logWeather log June 2011.

June began and ended with warm sunny days. The second week was cold: the 9th had a maximum of only 12° after a frosty night of -2.7°. Days from the 12th to the 15th were not much warmer, made miserable by overcast and rain, but the nights were warm. The 8/8 cloud recorded on the morning of the 24th was fog, which cleared to a blue sky at 10:45.
The highest rainfall reading was only 8 mm, recorded on the 22nd. Five rain days totalled 17.8 mm.

 Comparing June monthsClimate June 2011.

Of the mean temperature readings, only the mean daily maximum was a bit lower than usual. Days were not as cold as in June 2007. This time, there were 14 frosts, which is near the decade average.
The rainfall of 17.8 mm is rather low: on the 20th percentile for June. (The long-term June average is 44.3 mm.) June rainfalls have fallen rather steadily since June 2005, the sixth wettest on record at 109 mm. Nearly all rainfall totals for groups of months (up to 360 months) continue to be near normal. Only those for three months and four months are below the 25th 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.

 

Autumn 2011 Normal but Cloudy

Posted in Manilla NSW, Season Weather by

 

Weather log autumn 2011Normal autumn weather was broken by an almost rainless period from mid-April to late May. Temperatures fell very low, particularly at night. The minimum of minus 2.8 degrees on 15/5/11 was a record for autumn. The coldest nights were exceptionally dry: 17/5/11 had the lowest Dew Point in thirteen years, -9.3°. Even during the extreme drought of July 2002, with four Dew Point readings below -6°, the air did not get nearly so dry.

On the average (as shown below) temperatures and the Dew Point were near normal, except that days were rather cool, as in autumn 2008. On average, that autumn, however, was much drier, with cold nights. Autumn 2007 had been very warm and wet.
This time, the percentage of mornings with more than 4/8 cloud was 43%. That almost matches last autumn’s 45% and is far above those of autumns in the previous decade, which averaged just 25%.
Rain fell on 21 days, an unusually large number. The total rainfall of 116.8 mm is on the 52nd percentile for autumn. It is 16 mm below the autumn average (133 mm).Climate autumn 2011

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.

May 2011 cloudy, rainy, but not humid

Posted in Manilla NSW, Monthly weather by

The daily weather logWeather log May 2011.

May had five rain days (usually only three) but they came very late. The highest rainfall reading, 19.6 mm on the 23rd, ended a 35-day dry spell. Before the rain, the air had become extremely dry. The morning Dew Point on the 17th was -9.3° and the daily minimum temperature on the 15th -2.8°: both were 13-year record low values for May. The daily temperature range reached 24.9° on the 18th.
With the rain came cloudy, cold days. The 30th, with a maximum of only 11.1°, was the coldest May day in this record. It was nearly two degrees below the previous coldest: 12.9° on 29/5/00.

 Comparing May monthsClimate May 2011.

Mean temperatures were a little below average. There were 11 frosts, compared with the usual six.
After sunny April, May was back to the extreme cloudiness of the last three years. The air was not humid at all, however. The mean Dew Point was only slightly higher than in the droughty May of 2006.
The rainfall of 43.2 mm is on the 64th percentile for May, and just above the long-term May average (39.3 mm). May rainfalls have been low (or very low) for a number of years: this was the wettest May since 1998 (74 mm). Rainfall totals for groups of months (up to 360 months) continue to be near 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.