Australian Weather News |
Tuesday, 11 DEC 2001 |
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Snow closed the road up Mount
Wellington behind Hobart Tasmania, and fell as low as 200m above
sea level at Port Arthur overnight as a blast of wintry weather hit Tasmania.
Hobart City Council had to call out the graders to clear 5 to 10cm of snow
and ice from the mountain road, which remained closed most of the morning
with the 9am temperature at the summit only -2.2°. A cold front which crossed
the state yesterday afternoon ushered in a cold, deep SSW airstream, with
the observer at Palmers Lookout, 190m above sea level behind Port Arthur,
reporting snow flurries during the early evening. It also gave the Lookout
its coldest December night in 20 years of record. Snow fell on the Central
Plateau overnight, and Mt Owen behind Queenstown was white with
hail and snow down to around 1000m this morning. Temperatures and precipitation
measurements from the automatic station on Mt Read behind Zeehan
suggest that heavy snow fell at higher levels on the western mountains.
Storm force winds were reported from Bass Strait, with Wilsons Promontory
Vic recording a top wind gust of 122km/h with an average windspeed of 111km/h
shortly before 4am. The cold conditions led a Hobart Bureau of Meteorology
spokesman to say that the first 10 days of December this year have been
the coldest on record, with temperatures between two and four degrees colder
than average.
The cold airmass that has persisted under cloud cover in Central Australia for the past 3 days moved north into southern and western NT today, with most centres reporting maximum temperatures 10 to 17° below average. A thunderstorm in the early hours of this morning produced a wind gust of 113km/h at Mackay Airport Qld. The storm dropped 18.0mm in 10 minutes at the met office as the gust front swept through about 1.30am. The storms cleared to an unusually warm day along the central and southeast coasts with temperatures up to 7° in an area where daytime temperatures are fairly consistent. Lady Elliot Island, off the coast NE of Bundaberg, recorded its warmest December day in 45 years of record. |
National
weather extremes for today |
|
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): Lowest daily minimum temperature for December: Port Arthur (Palmers Lookout) Tas: 3.0 (4.0, 20) Highest daily maximum temperature for December: Lady Elliot Island Qld: 33.0 (32.3, 45) |
|
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. 93.0 LISSADELL E Kimberley
WA |
High rainfall for periods of 6 hours or less. |
Todays highest & lowest temperatures |
|
Maximum | Minimum |
41.0 ELLIOTT Barkly NT 39.9 MORANBAH WATER TREATMENT PLANT Central Coast W QLD 39.0 HUGHENDEN AIRPORT Upper Carpentaria QLD 39.0 RICHMOND AIRPORT Upper Carpentaria QLD 39.0 CLERMONT POST OFFICE Central Highlands QLD 39.0 EMERALD AIRPORT Central Highlands QLD |
30.0 MORNINGTON ISLAND Gulf Country QLD 29.2 CENTRE ISLAND Roper-McArthur NT 29.2 SWEERS ISLAND Gulf Country QLD 28.5 ALYANGULA POLICE Arnhem NT 28.3 GREEN ISLAND N Coast--Barron QLD |
3.0 MOUNT BULLER Upper NE VIC 3.5 MOUNT READ W Coast TAS 5.5 MOUNT WELLINGTON Southeast TAS 6.4 HARTZ MOUNTAIN(KEOGHS PIMPLE) Southeast TAS 7.0 THREDBO (CRACKENBACK STATION) AWS Snowy Mtns NSW |
-1.5 LIAWENEE AWS Central Plateau TAS -1.4 MOUNT READ W Coast TAS -1.1 HARTZ MOUNTAIN(KEOGHS PIMPLE) Southeast TAS -1.1 CRADLE MOUNTAIN AIRSTRIP Central Plateau TAS |
Todays greatest temperature variations from normal |
Maximum | Minimum |
+6.9 36.0 BUNDABERG AERO Wide Bay/Burnett QLD +6.5 39.9 MORANBAH WATER TREATMENT PLANT Central Coast W QLD +5.9 33.8 REDCLIFFE COUNCIL Brisbane/SE Coast QLD +5.5 34.4 SANDY CAPE LIGHTHOUSE Wide Bay/Burnett QLD +5.0 32.2 LANCELIN Lower West WA +5.0 32.0 DOUBLE ISLAND POINT LIGHTHOUSE Brisbane/SE Coast QLD |
+5.4 26.5 COLLINSVILLE POST OFFICE Central Coast
E QLD +5.2 27.0 AYR DPI RESEARCH STN Central Coast E QLD +5.1 21.7 MORAWA POST OFFICE Central West WA +4.9 25.8 MORANBAH WATER TREATMENT PLANT Central Coast W QLD +4.4 27.0 PALMERVILLE S Peninsula QLD +4.4 26.5 CARDWELL EDEN ST N Coast--Herbert QLD |
-16.6 20.2 WILUNA Interior WA -15.7 20.4 YEELIRRIE Goldfields WA -12.8 25.0 JERVOIS Alice Springs NT -11.5 24.5 YUENDUMU Alice Springs NT -11.3 13.4 STRATHBOGIE Lower NE VIC |
-7.8 11.1 LEIGH CREEK AIRPORT NE Pastoral SA
-7.5 13.1 KULGERA Alice Springs NT -7.5 6.2 MURRURUNDI POST OFFICE Hunter Valley NSW -7.5 9.0 BARADINE FORESTRY NW Plains E NSW |
Highest wind gusts above 89km/h or mean wind above 62km/h (gale force). Wind direction and mean windspeed shown in brackets. MACKAY AERO Central Coast E
QLD: 113 (270/ 82 ) at 01:25 |
Other extremes .. |