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Having spent a while looking over stats for the Island on the BOMs fantastic website, i thought id post some observations here.
There are observations from nearly 100 sites in the link below (i think all of these are at least 30years of data) and in other places on the website there are dozens more sites with under 30 years of data or just rainfall stats.
http://www.bom.gov.a...tas_names.shtml
Despite being fairly 'compact', it has a similar variability to New Zealand from the east to west coast, and far larger in some respects than Ireland or England.
For example Sunshine varies from around 1400 hrs on some South West areas, to around 2600 hours in the central plain. Launceston airport for example averages 2557 hours annually, compared to Strathgordon with 1498 hours. The two locations are less than 100miles from each other.
http://www.bom.gov.a...cw_091104.shtml
Despite it being 42-43S, temperature inversions appear to be rare and dont deliver sea level subzero maximums, although it comes close at a few locations, with Bushy Park about 20 miles outside Hobart and an elevation of just 27m having a record low winter maximum of 0.0c. However, this seems very localized. Rossendale, despite being nearly 700m up and having lower average winter maximums has never seen a maximum below 1.7c. I assume the sun is too strong to allow for inversions.
Unlike the UK, where winter tends to be cold and clear, or wet and warm, it appears tasmania in the winter is cold and wet, or dry and warm. Most days with a maximum of below 5c in winter seem to be accompanied by 20mm+ rainfall totals and strong winds. I have noticed a similar thing in South Africa and assume it is peculiar to the Southern Hemisphere.
While record low maximums tend to be about 2 or 3c above freezing, inland, most winters seem to have a few days of 5 or 6c maximums, so while subzero daytime cold is virtually unknown aside from mountaintops, cold days occur most winters.
Record minimum of -13.0c at a few locations is far milder than the -25.6c at a similar latitude and a similar distance to the coast in New Zealand. Again, despite absolute minimums of above -10c at most places, most winters seem to still record a few nights down to -5c or so. So despite rather tame record minimums, in terms of averages and annual averages, 99% of Tasmania winter nights are similar to UK winter nights.
This is illustrated by the mean july maximum and minimum of 7.2c and 0.8c at Watarah - similar to somewhere in the UK midlands. However, the coldest day ever is +1.1c and the coldest night -5.5c - about 10c above what a typical site in the UK midlands might achieve. A similar narrow band of extremes is recorded with cold months - tending to be only 2c below average, unlike the 5 or 6c below average possible in the UK.
http://www.bom.gov.a...97014_All.shtml
This is also the wettest site i can find with average rainfall above 2100mm. Although a closed site a Tullah apparently records 2800mm. Ross, to the eastern half of the island, fails to reach 500mm http://www.bom.gov.a...cw_093053.shtml
The warmest daytime maximums are at Cressy, with a Jan and Feb mean of 25.1c
http://www.bom.gov.a..._startYear=2006
The lowest (at low level) are at Matsuuker, with a Feb mean of 17.2c
http://www.bom.gov.a...cw_094041.shtml
As with the rest of Australia, seriously warm nights can occur on occasion, despite not having any sizeable urban heat islands - with Strahan recording a minimum of 27.3c during feb 82.
http://www.bom.gov.a...a=tas&year=2012
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The Weather/climate Of Tasmania.
#2
Posted 23 April 2012 - 00:35
A long time ago an Australian friend from Tasmania told us that in the winter there is snow on the mountains in Tasmania. Surely the temperature must go below 0 C. quite often at some of these higher locations.
#3
Posted 29 July 2012 - 18:38
HSEA2, on 22 April 2012 - 22:54, said:
Having spent a while looking over stats for the Island on the BOMs fantastic website, i thought id post some observations here.
There are observations from nearly 100 sites in the link below (i think all of these are at least 30years of data) and in other places on the website there are dozens more sites with under 30 years of data or just rainfall stats.
http://www.bom.gov.a...tas_names.shtml
Despite being fairly 'compact', it has a similar variability to New Zealand from the east to west coast, and far larger in some respects than Ireland or England.
For example Sunshine varies from around 1400 hrs on some South West areas, to around 2600 hours in the central plain. Launceston airport for example averages 2557 hours annually, compared to Strathgordon with 1498 hours. The two locations are less than 100miles from each other.
http://www.bom.gov.a...cw_091104.shtml
Despite it being 42-43S, temperature inversions appear to be rare and dont deliver sea level subzero maximums, although it comes close at a few locations, with Bushy Park about 20 miles outside Hobart and an elevation of just 27m having a record low winter maximum of 0.0c. However, this seems very localized. Rossendale, despite being nearly 700m up and having lower average winter maximums has never seen a maximum below 1.7c. I assume the sun is too strong to allow for inversions.
Unlike the UK, where winter tends to be cold and clear, or wet and warm, it appears tasmania in the winter is cold and wet, or dry and warm. Most days with a maximum of below 5c in winter seem to be accompanied by 20mm+ rainfall totals and strong winds. I have noticed a similar thing in South Africa and assume it is peculiar to the Southern Hemisphere.
While record low maximums tend to be about 2 or 3c above freezing, inland, most winters seem to have a few days of 5 or 6c maximums, so while subzero daytime cold is virtually unknown aside from mountaintops, cold days occur most winters.
Record minimum of -13.0c at a few locations is far milder than the -25.6c at a similar latitude and a similar distance to the coast in New Zealand. Again, despite absolute minimums of above -10c at most places, most winters seem to still record a few nights down to -5c or so. So despite rather tame record minimums, in terms of averages and annual averages, 99% of Tasmania winter nights are similar to UK winter nights.
This is illustrated by the mean july maximum and minimum of 7.2c and 0.8c at Watarah - similar to somewhere in the UK midlands. However, the coldest day ever is +1.1c and the coldest night -5.5c - about 10c above what a typical site in the UK midlands might achieve. A similar narrow band of extremes is recorded with cold months - tending to be only 2c below average, unlike the 5 or 6c below average possible in the UK.
http://www.bom.gov.a...97014_All.shtml
There are observations from nearly 100 sites in the link below (i think all of these are at least 30years of data) and in other places on the website there are dozens more sites with under 30 years of data or just rainfall stats.
http://www.bom.gov.a...tas_names.shtml
Despite being fairly 'compact', it has a similar variability to New Zealand from the east to west coast, and far larger in some respects than Ireland or England.
For example Sunshine varies from around 1400 hrs on some South West areas, to around 2600 hours in the central plain. Launceston airport for example averages 2557 hours annually, compared to Strathgordon with 1498 hours. The two locations are less than 100miles from each other.
http://www.bom.gov.a...cw_091104.shtml
Despite it being 42-43S, temperature inversions appear to be rare and dont deliver sea level subzero maximums, although it comes close at a few locations, with Bushy Park about 20 miles outside Hobart and an elevation of just 27m having a record low winter maximum of 0.0c. However, this seems very localized. Rossendale, despite being nearly 700m up and having lower average winter maximums has never seen a maximum below 1.7c. I assume the sun is too strong to allow for inversions.
Unlike the UK, where winter tends to be cold and clear, or wet and warm, it appears tasmania in the winter is cold and wet, or dry and warm. Most days with a maximum of below 5c in winter seem to be accompanied by 20mm+ rainfall totals and strong winds. I have noticed a similar thing in South Africa and assume it is peculiar to the Southern Hemisphere.
While record low maximums tend to be about 2 or 3c above freezing, inland, most winters seem to have a few days of 5 or 6c maximums, so while subzero daytime cold is virtually unknown aside from mountaintops, cold days occur most winters.
Record minimum of -13.0c at a few locations is far milder than the -25.6c at a similar latitude and a similar distance to the coast in New Zealand. Again, despite absolute minimums of above -10c at most places, most winters seem to still record a few nights down to -5c or so. So despite rather tame record minimums, in terms of averages and annual averages, 99% of Tasmania winter nights are similar to UK winter nights.
This is illustrated by the mean july maximum and minimum of 7.2c and 0.8c at Watarah - similar to somewhere in the UK midlands. However, the coldest day ever is +1.1c and the coldest night -5.5c - about 10c above what a typical site in the UK midlands might achieve. A similar narrow band of extremes is recorded with cold months - tending to be only 2c below average, unlike the 5 or 6c below average possible in the UK.
http://www.bom.gov.a...97014_All.shtml
Case in point, although Liawenee only has an absolute minimum of -10.4c until 2006 (-11.2c as of July 2011) it records temperatures near that level most years (it would be like Braemar getting down to -25c or below almost every winter!)
2011: -11.2c
http://www.bom.gov.a...s/summary.shtml
2010: -10.2c
http://www.bom.gov.a...0.summary.shtml
2009: -8.6c
http://www.bom.gov.a...9.summary.shtml
2008: -10.2c
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/tas/archive/2008.summary.shtml
2007: -8.8c
http://www.bom.gov.a...7.summary.shtml
2006: -10.5c
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/tas/archive/2006.summary.shtml
2005: -8.0c
http://www.bom.gov.a.../20060104.shtml
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