Australian Weather News |
Saturday, 17 MAR 2001 |
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A front crossed Victoria overnight preceded by a trough that amplified northeastwards into NSW before petering out near the Great Divide. Meanwhile, a small low developed in western Bass Strait early this morning, the result of cold air moving in with the front and a strong southwesterly jetstream over western Victoria. This low deepened to 995hPa as it moved through the Strait during the day, bringing gales to Victoria and Tasmania, and dragging a considerable rainband SE across Victoria and Tasmania. It was not a day to be out in Bass Strait, with winds gusting to 132km/h at Wilsons Promontory Lighthouse, and to 109km/h over open water at the Kingfish B oil rig off Sale. Details of top gusts are below. All of Victoria except the Mallee and Wimmera received between 10 and 50mm of rain, with some locations in the east recording up to 65mm. In Tasmania, most of the state except the southeast recorded over 25mm. Along the north coast, many locations recorded between 50 and 70mm as the low skirted close to the coastline. The rain brought optimism to farmers, particularly in parched southern Victoria and in the central highlands, southern midlands and east coast of Tasmania where summer rainfall has been in the lowest 10% of falls in the past century. Irrigation bans, which have been in force for many northern Tasmanian streams, were lifted on the Meander River following the rain, and were being reviewed for other northern rivers. Parts of western Victoria have received only half their normal summer rain. The maps below show the areas that benefited from the rainband, and the areas of serious rainfall deficiency. General rains of 25 to 50mm also fell across central NSW and the Southern Tablelands and Slopes, with some heavy falls in thunderstorms. Rainfall registrations of 50mm or more are given below.
Today was the first day since 28 December that the maximum temperature in Melbourne has failed to reach 20°. For 78 consecutive days, a top temperature of 20 or above has been recorded at the Lonsdale Street site, breaking the previous record of 70 consecutive days set in 1956. As Melbourne's records date back to 1855, this is a significant measure of the warmth of this summer in southern Victoria. Across Victoria as a whole, this summer was one of the warmest on record, with minimum temperatures 2 to 3 above normal and maximum temperatures 1 to 2 up. Canberra, too, had a record number of consecutive days with temperatures equalling or exceeding 20° -- 120, from 17 November to 16 March. The previous record was 109 days set in 1997/98. A rejuvenated monsoon brought widespread falls of between 50 and 100mm across the WA Kimberley, the NT Top End and the Queensland Peninsula and Northern Tropical Coast areas. Details are below. |
National
weather extremes for today |
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Quality control note: Data is complete, and has been visually checked by AWN for gross errors. Less obvious errors may remain. See Explanation of Extremes Pages for more information | |
Records
set this day (previous
record and years of computerised record shown in brackets): Highest 24-hour rainfall for March: Thredbo Crackenback NSW: 96.0 (83.3, 16) |
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Todays highest rainfall totals for the 24 hours to 9am. It includes the top 5 totals received, and/or all reported falls of 50mm or more. 113.0 BATCHELOR AERO Darwin-Daly
NT |
High rainfall for periods of 6 hours or less.
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Todays highest & lowest temperatures |
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Maximum | Minimum |
41.0
KARRATHA AERO E Pilbara WA 40.7 ROEBOURNE E Pilbara WA 40.2 WINDORAH POST OFFICE Channel Country QLD 40.1 BOULIA AIRPORT Channel Country QLD 40.0 URANDANGIE Northwest QLD |
27.5
PARDOO STATION E Pilbara WA 27.1 WILLIS ISLAND Islands 27.0 BOULIA AIRPORT Channel Country QLD 26.6 QUILPIE AIRPORT Far SW QLD 26.4 WINDORAH POST OFFICE Channel Country QLD |
3.0
THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW 5.8 CHARLOTTE PASS (KOSCIUSKO CHALET) Snowy Mtns NSW 7.0 CABRAMURRA SMHEA AWS SW Slopes S NSW 9.8 LOOKOUT HILL Western Plains VIC 10.7 DUNNS HILL E Central VIC |
-0.5
MT HOTHAM Upper NE VIC 0.0 THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW 0.0 MOUNT BULLER Upper NE VIC 0.4 FALLS CREEK Upper NE VIC 0.5 CHARLOTTE PASS (KOSCIUSKO CHALET) Snowy Mtns NSW |
Todays greatest temperature variations from normal |
|
Maximum | Minimum |
+7.9
39.4 DALWALLINU COMPARISON Central West WA +5.8 40.2 WINDORAH POST OFFICE Channel Country QLD +5.4 38.7 QUILPIE AIRPORT Far SW QLD +4.8 40.1 BOULIA AIRPORT Channel Country QLD +4.8 36.8 BOLLON MARY ST Warrego QLD |
+6.8
20.2 QUIRINDI POST OFFICE NW Slopes S NSW +6.7 17.0 SWANSEA POST OFFICE E Coast TAS +6.4 17.0 HOBART AIRPORT Southeast TAS +6.4 10.4 MOUNT WELLINGTON Southeast TAS +6.2 17.0 HOBART (ELLERSLIE ROAD) Southeast TAS |
-10.5
3.0 THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW -10.3 15.6 EDI UPPER Upper NE VIC -10.1 21.4 COONAMBLE COMPARISON CW Plains N NSW -9.8 15.6 LAKE EILDON GOULBURN MURRAY WATER (LAKE N Central VIC -9.4 16.3 DARTMOUTH RESERVOIR Lower NE VIC |
-8.2
7.7 PERTH AIRPORT Lower West WA -7.9 8.0 PEARCE RAAF Lower West WA -7.6 9.0 DALWALLINU COMPARISON Central West WA -7.3 5.0 KYANCUTTA W Agricultural SA -7.2 7.1 GAWLER RANGES (NONNING) NW Pastoral SA |
Highest wind gusts above 89km/h or mean wind above 62km/h (gale force). Wind direction and mean windspeed shown in brackets. GREEN CAPE AWS South Coast NSW:
91 ( 10/ 72 ) at 02:37 |
Other extremes .. |