Tag Archives: dry air

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.

 

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.