Tag Archives: Gaussian smoothing

Autumn 2016 had many warm spells

Posted in Manilla NSW, Season Weather by
Photo of a garden in Manilla NSW

Autumn Garden

The season was marked by a series of warm spells. The three warmest, coming early in each month, reached 3° to 4° above normal. In the first two, days and nights were equally warm; in the third, nights were much higher above normal than days, making the daily temperature range narrower than normal by 4°. The only cool spells having temperatures below normal were in the third week of March and the last week of May. All three frosts of this season came in the final week .
Rain came in five episodes, spaced a week or two apart. There were 12 rain days, which is the usual number, but the highest reading was only 20.8 mm.

Weather log for autumn 2016
This was the warmest autumn in this short record. Daily maximum, mean, and minimum temperatures were all more than 1.5° above the average for the decade beginning March 1999. The subsoil temperature at 750 mm was also rather high.
The composite Moisture Index was normal, rainfall being a little low and cloudiness rather high (36%, when the autumn “normal” is 25%).
The total rainfall of 88.3 mm was below the autumn average of 134 mm, and in the 35th percentile.

Climate for autumn 2016.

All data, including subsoil at 750 mm, are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla. Rainfall data up to 26/3/15 is from Manilla Post Office, Station 055031.

Summer 2015-16 cool then warm

Posted in Manilla NSW, Season Weather by
Photo of San Pedro cactus blooming

San Pedro cactus blooms

Taken as a whole, this summer was nearer to normal than last summer. Several numbers were close to average: daily maximum temperature, daily mean temperature, daily minimum temperature, and daily temperature range. The mean early morning dew point was rather low, while the cloudiness and total rainfall were a little high.
There were two very hot days over 40° (the usual number) and 29 hot days over 35° (just 6 more than usual).

Weather log for summer 2015-16A very cool spell came in early December, between other cool spells in late November and late December. Then, from mid-February through to early autumn, the weather was very warm. With this warmth came dry air, a wide daily temperature range, and sunny skies.
The total rainfall of 253.6 mm was above the summer average of 227 mm. After 20 rain days (the usual number), rainfall ceased on the 4th of February. Had it continued, the total might have reached a very wet 350 mm.

Climate log for summer 2015-16.

All data, including subsoil at 750 mm, are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla. Rainfall data up to 26/3/15 is from Manilla Post Office, Station 055031.

Warm Spring 2015

Posted in Manilla NSW, Season Weather by

 

View of Redjack Mountain from Manilla

Redjack Mountain

After cool spells in early and late September, the season was marked by two long very warm spells in early October and late November. In these, days were five degrees above normal, the air was very dry, and there was little cloud.

Weather log for spring 2015

On the average, the season was only the fourth warmest spring of the new century. Spring days had been much warmer in 2002 and in 2014, while spring nights had been just as warm in 2002, 2005, 2009, and 2014 as in 2015.
Measures of moisture (rainfall, humidity, cloud, and a narrow daily temperature range) were a little below normal, but not as low as in the last three spring seasons. Humidity (as dew point) had been extremely low in spring 2013.
The total rainfall for the season, 125 mm, was in the 31st percentile. Just four years ago, the spring rainfall total for 2011 was the record-breaking 431.7 mm.

Climate for spring 2015

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

Winter 2015 like winter 2014

Posted in Manilla NSW, Season Weather by
A low-level lenticular cloud

Low Level Lennie

Weather log for winter 2014There was one short spell of rather cold days in mid-July this year, and another at the very end of August.
Otherwise, this winter was very like the winter before. In mid-June and late August there were humid spells with heavy rain and very warm nights. By contrast, early August had cold nights with very low humidity and no rain. In both years, July had very light falls of rain.
The number of frosts in each season (38; 42) was near normal (44), but in this winter the coldest night (minus 2.1°) was the warmest so far this century.

Weather log for winter 2015

Like last winter, the average night temperature and the cloudiness were a little high, and the dew point very low. Average day temperature was half a degree low, making the daily temperature range narrow.
The winter rainfall, 133 mm, was just above the average (125 mm) and in the 62nd percentile.

Climate for winter 2015

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

3-year trends to August 2015

Posted in 3-year climate trends, Manilla NSW by

Parametric plots of smoothed climate variables at Manilla
“August 2015: cooler, moister trend persists”

Trends to August 2015

Fully smoothed data (red)

The last fully-smoothed data point (February 2015) completes the summer of 2014-15. This summer had a steady cooling and moistening trend for all variables except subsoil temperature, which passed through a minimum. Three of these seven variables were very close to normal: daily maximum temperature, rainfall, and subsoil temperature. Skies were rather cloudy, dew point was three degrees low (as is now usual), daily temperature range was half a degree low, and daily minimum temperature was half a degree high. These four variables all relate to moisture. Only the dew point shows low moisture: the others show high moisture, while the rainfall was normal.

August raw anomaly data (orange)

The partially-smoothed data points from March to July (uncoloured) show excursions, but the unsmoothed data point for August (orange) is close to the trend established in the summer. That is, cooler and moister. However, no variables had values far from normal.

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.