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 Temperature
records fall as wintry blast hits TAS,
VIC, SA
The late-season
blast of cold air from well south of the continent that gave low level snow
to TAS yesterday moved north overnight, breaking October low temperature records
in three states. In Adelaide, the minimum reading of 4.7 was the
coldest since 3.3 was recorded at the old West Terrace site on 24 October 1951,
and was the lowest on record at the new Kent Town Bureau site
which has operated since 1977. Adelaide Airport also set a new record,
with 3.1 being its coldest October minimum since records began in 1955.
Other areas to experience an unusually cold start to the day were the central
NT, central and western VIC, the NSW Riverina and coastal TAS. New records
were set in TAS at Wynyard Airport, Fingal, Scamander and Bicheno, though,
with the exception of Bicheno, these stations have only 15 to 20 years of observations.
At Bicheno, however, the new record of 0.7 significantly undercut the old one
of 1.6 in 28 years of record. The central VIC town of Maryborough also set
a new record for October cold, its reading of -0.4 the coldest in 39 years
of record-keeping. See the Records and Coldest sections
below for more details.
 Bleak
day in TAS
Strong
winds, low temperatures and light snowfalls down to below 300m asl produced
an unseasonably bleak day in TAS. Although the southwesterly stream
was fairly dry, there were moderate snow accumulations on the Central Plateau
overnight
with
13cm on the ground at 9am at Lake St Clair, 10 at Tarraleah Village, and 6
at Cradle Valley Airfield. Farther east, though it was cold enough to snow,
the airstream dried after its descent from the Plateau and only light
snow was reported by Bureau observers during the day at Palmers Lookout near
Port
Arthur,
Maydena
in the
upper Derwent
Valley,
and Lake Leake in the northeast, as well as from the Central Plateau stations.
There were light dustings of snow in higher Hobart suburbs on the slopes of
Mt Wellington down to around 250m. Windchills atop Mt Wellington hovered in
the -20s during the day, with temperatures ranging between -2 and -5 and winds
averaging 50 to 60km/h and gusting to 100. |
Records
set this day (previous record and years of computerised record shown in
brackets):
Lowest daily minimum temperature for October:
South Australia:
023034 ADELAIDE AIRPORT 3.1 (3.2, 49)
023090 ADELAIDE (KENT TOWN) 4.7 (4.9, 26)
Victoria:
088043 MARYBOROUGH -0.4 (-0.2, 39)
Tasmania:
091107 WYNYARD AIRPORT -1.4 (-1.2, 16)
092003 BICHENO (COUNCIL DEPOT) 0.7 (1.6, 28)
092012 FINGAL (LEGGE STREET) -3.8 (-3.1, 17)
092094 SCAMANDER 0.1 (0.4, 20)
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