Discussion: Sydney's Weather

[rainfan]

Originally Posted by ATO2

I couldn't agree more. We get that in New Plymouth:
Whinger:"I came here and the mountain is always clouded!"
Local:"Well get up early, you lazy sod- it is a mountain, it often clouds over later in the day!"

Thats a good one ATO2

[rainfan]

Originally Posted by RWood

Yes, considering he could get 90% + of possible sun at Darwin and Broome (eg) at this time of year he's being a bit naive.

Indeed. If it was me coming from the UK, I'd pick one of those two aforementioned places - no doubt about that. Darwin's had 176.3 hrs (or 10.4 hrs daily) to end yesterday and running mean max temp of 31.9oC which is nothing new, after all it's the "Dry" season = no rain, warm temps especially daytime and endless blue, sunny skies until at least October.

[rainfan]

Originally Posted by RWood

A question arising on historical Sydney weather, brought about by seeing an item in Cricinfo: an Australia-England test played in Sydney, about 25 Feb 1955 - 2 March 1955. The game was drawn as the first 3 days were completely either washed out by rain or sodden outfield. Apparently there was some major flooding in Sydney and/or other parts of NSW around that time - I'm sure that rainfan can help out here!

Melbourne had its share of disruption - 2 or 3 days washed out for a tour match in November 1954, and 3 days lost in a game earlier in February 1955.

There was a long-running and strong La Nina that covered this period (as measured by the oceanic ONI index - the SOI lagged it a bit). NZ had some very interesting weather in Feb. and March 1955, but that's another story.

February 1955 was a month of extremes - dry, warm and somewhat sunny but not particularly so during the first 2 weeks and quite wet, cool and cloudy in the last two weeks. 263mm (225% of average) fell on 18 days making it the wettest Feb. since 1929 (279mm) and only 116 hrs of sun was recorded - cloudiest Feb ever at the time. 9 days had no sun, 7 of this occurring over the last 14 days.

Conditions for the dates you mentioned RWood:-

From 9am on the 20th to 9am on the 1st of March -159mm fell, maximum fall of this period being 60.5mm to 9am on the 25th accompained by strong to gale force southerly winds. Maximum gust on the 24th was 102km/hr and 72km/hr on the 25th. The sun did not (bar the 27th which had 5 hrs) make any appearances from the 23rd.

There were reports of minor to moderate flooding around the Sydney MA especially in outer suburbs such as Campbelltown where the force of floodwaters buckled train lines causing a "goods" train to derail, however this paled in comparsion to the Hunter Valley floods which were of disastrous proportions and the worst since March 1893/June 1949. 5000 homes were flooded at Maitland with another 1600 in Singleton.

The decade of the 1950's especially 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1959 saw many places on the eastern seaboard getting record rains & experiencing very wet conditions due to strong La Nina patterns prevailing. 1957 was the only major exception with very dry weather.

[rainfan]

In addition to the last post, for comparison purposes - Perth (RO site) on the other side of the country recorded 1181mm of rain that year (wettest year since 1945 which had 1338mm which in turn happens to be the wettest year on record). Feb. had 166.3mm (wettest ever Feb.) which equates to 1,250.3 % of the average !!!, April had 275.1 %, August 211.3 % and October with 228 %.

[rainfan]

Yesterday: After some more overnight showers, the strong S winds had abated overnight and winds were light to moderate. Mostly cloudy and cool. Min of 13 and max of 17 in the city.

Today: Early morning cloud rapidly cleared to sparkling blue sunny skies from 9am - that is until 11 30am when cloud swept in from the N & remaining quite cloudy with very little sun for the rest of today. Winds were moderate & cool becoming lighter and milder by the afternoon. Slighty humid and hazy.

Maximums ranged from 19-20 degrees across the SMA

City: 13/19
Airport: 13/20
Lowest min: 10 at Canterbury

The 35.6 hrs recorded during the first fifteen days is the cloudiest first half since 1-15 June 1945 which had 35.4 hrs. Not sure if this year is second in place, awaiting BOM's reply.

39.3 hrs to end 17th.

Forecast of fine and sunny days from Saturday for at least a week as we come under the influence of dry, cold SW winds. I've been enjoying the warmer night temps so am not looking too forward to the colder & windy conditions once the SW winds arrive.

July is looking like a month with very little rain, judging by current models.

[RWood]

Interesting that Perth also had unusually high rainfall that year.

[rainfan]

Saturday: After some early morning cloud cleared, fine and sunny day with cold dry SW winds. Min of 11oC and max of 18 degrees. Spent the morning at Olympic Park (Supanova Pop Culture Expo) then had an afternoon "Winter BBQ" in the grounds - really nice with the clear & sunny skies but the incessant SW wind made it feel so cold.

Today: Sunny and cold with gusty dry SW winds with some cloud from mid AM to early PM.

City: 9/17
Airport: 9/16
Highest max: 18 at Richmond (NW)
Lowest max: 15 at Terrey Hills (N)
Lowest min: 2 at Richmond (NW)

Up to end Friday 20th June only 49 hrs of sun recorded. No doubt sunny weather expected over next 7 days as well as yesterday and today will increase the total significantly.

[ATO2]

Well, you have now got the Sun coming your way and it looks like I have a week of cloud and rain! Yesterday's Solstice may have been the last of the beautiful days here for a while!

[rainfan]

Originally Posted by ATO2

Well, you have now got the Sun coming your way and it looks like I have a week of cloud and rain! Yesterday's Solstice may have been the last of the beautiful days here for a while!

Yes, our cities have swapped weather . I totally forgot it was the shortest day of the year yesterday , at least days will start to get longer increasing a bit everyday from now on, can't wait for those brighter evenings

[ATO2]

Amen to that! I find that by the first week in July that I really begin notice that the Sun is setting a little later. Hope returns! No wonder so many cultures built structures to check out where the Sun was in the sky!