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Monday 25 December 2000 |
Hot in
SW Western Australia Heavy storms continue in Northern Territory Wintry in Tasmania ![]() |
It was a classic, hot Christmas
Day in southwestern WA today, with the mercury rising 10 to 15° above
the December average. In Perth, the mercury rose to 37.6, the hottest Christmas
Day in 32 years. Badgingarra, 170km north of Perth, recorded a top of 40°,
15 above normal, while Mandurah to the south of Perth recorded 39, 12 above.
A cool change swept through late in the afternoon.
A complex of surface and upper troughs over central and northern NT again produced isolated heavy falls from thunderstorms. Tindal, 20km NW of Katherine, recorded 104mm in a storm around midnight this morning, while Tennant Creek Airport reported 25mm from a storm around the same time. Larrimah, 150km SE of Katherine, received 48mm between 3 and 9pm. A 958hPa low pressure system well south of Tasmania continued to produce gale to storm force west to northwesterly winds across the state today. These intensified as a succession of troughs, or perturbations, embedded in the westerly stream crossed the island, adding hail and light highland snow to the mixture. Atop Mt Wellington, behind Hobart, the temperature hovered between -1.5 and +1.0 all day, with the exception of a brief excursion up to 3.6 in the early afternoon, while the wind averaged between 65 and 85km/h all day. Similar conditions would have been experienced in other mountain areas in the southwest and centre of the island, giving the many bushwalkers out for the holidays an unexpectedly severe and possibly white Christmas. Meanwhile, Cradle Valley, at the northwestern edge of Tasmania's central plateaux, chalked up a record 24-hour rainfall total for December in the moist northwesterlies. 103.2mm fell to 9 this morning, comprehensively breaking the previous record of 74.0mm in over half a century of rainfall registration at Waldheim. |
Today's highest rainfall totals for the 24 hours to 9am 108.0 Tindal NT Other heavy falls in southern NT, western
Qld: Other heavy falls in Tasmania: High falls for other periods: Northern Territory: |
Today's highest & lowest temps |
Wind (mean refers to the average windspeed over 10 minutes; gust is the highest speed recorded): Cape Grim
Tas: gusts to 98km/h at 1am Other extremes Flood peaks: Records set this day Highest
daily rainfall for December
(previous record and years of
computerised record shown in brackets): |
|
Maximum | Minimum | ||
43.6 Gascoyne Jn WA | 29.0 Halls Ck AP WA | ||
3.6 Mt Wellington Tas | -1.5 Mt Wellington Tas | ||
Greatest variations from normal |
|||
Maximum | Minimum | ||
+11.4 38.6 Lancelin WA +11.1 39.0 Jurien WA +10.6 40.0 Geraldton AP WA |
+8.4 23.0 Badgingarra Res Stn Dandaragan WA |
||
-10.3 27.1 Tennant Ck AP NT -10.3 27.5 Ali Curung Tennant Ck NT |
-5.2 15.0 Alice Springs AP NT |