Discussion: Sydney's Weather

[RWood]

Exactly 50 in 10 days for W'gton, prob. 55 in 11. That won't last with the current unsettled spell, but there's good odds the monthly average will be exceeded.

[rainfan]

Dawned sunny and clear at first with W winds, strong at times. Frontal cloud periods mid am to mid pm. Changing to gale, colder SW winds after 2pm & cloud clearing to mainly sunny skies with few patches around. Very windy on the coast with choppy seas & plenty of cloud streaming from the SW to the S of us moving across the sea - made for pretty sights

City: 13/18
Airport 12/20
Highest max: 20 degrees at Airport
Lowest max: 17 at Campbelltown (SW) & Terrey Hills (N)

Currently windy, cold and 13oC. Windows are shut, heater is on and the extra doona thrown back onto the bed

[rainfan]

Originally Posted by ATO2

Warmth is always appreciated at this time of the year! That certainly isn't much Sun, for sure.We have 54 hrs MTD but I would imagine that over the rest of the month you will still collect more than us.

23.5 hrs to end 12th.

There've been occurences where parts of NZ have recorded more sun than us in various months, RWood would know more.

Would be nice to see a cloudy record broken as we've had numerous rainfall, temps and sunshine records near/broken but not a cloudy one.

I did some research on June daily sun obs from 1955-2007, those that come very close to the 2008 one:

5 - 24 June 1967 = 17.6 hrs (244mm; 24 days) S-SE winds dominated
1 - 12 June 1969 = 27.7 hrs (206mm; 16 days) S winds dominated
1 - 11 June 1991 = 28.5 hrs (340mm; 14 days) S-SE winds dominated

Cloudiest June on record at Ob Hill goes to 1951 with 75 hrs (350mm), 81 hrs for 1950 (Wettest June on record with 642mm) & 1967 with 78 hrs.

For the Airport site it's 1989 with 111hrs (291mm). In more recent years - 1998 with 126 hrs.

[RWood]

June 1967 saw some NZ totals in the 180s. There's a fair chance Sydney was beaten in 1958 and 1959 (Blenheim 203 and 205), haven't checked.

[rainfan]

Yesterday: Sunny at first with cloud increasing rapidly, becoming overcast by 10am. Coastal light drizzle/showers. Very cold with gale-force southerlies. Low of 9 and high of 14 in city - lowest temps so far this month with latter being the coldest day of the year TD.

Today: Very wintry and grey with very cold gale-force southerlies. Coastal drizzle/light showers. Very overcast with thick cloud zooming by from the S at considerable speeds. Sea very choppy and beaches totally deserted.

City: 10/15
Airport: 11/15

Western areas were warmer than coastal areas with maximums ranging from 16 - 17 degrees but colder where minimums are concerned with 7 - 8 degrees.

Rain since 9am:
City: 1.8mm
Rose Bay: 1.4mm
Airport: 0.8mm

Sunshine MTD: 35.5 hrs to end yesterday. No sun today so 35.5 hrs for the 1st 15 days of June. Might be a new record. Awaiting BOM's answer.

[rainfan]

Originally Posted by RWood

June 1967 saw some NZ totals in the 180s. There's a fair chance Sydney was beaten in 1958 and 1959 (Blenheim 203 and 205), haven't checked.

June 1958 - 145 hrs
June 1959 - 150 hrs

[rainfan]

Since last post showers became more heavier & frequent lasting all night. Mostly cloudy today with very few sunny spells & few light showers. Cold southerly winds strong to gusty at times & near gale on the coast.

City: 13/16
Airport: 14/16
Lowest max: 15 at Terrey Hills (N)

Rain to 9am:
City: 7.2
Airport: 5.4
Rose Bay: 5.4
Highest fall: 16 at North Turramurra (N)

Massive swells the size of office blocks which pounded the coast over the weekend have caused serious beach erosion. At the Heads, swells were as high as 5m with today's being 4m. Expected to ease from tomorrow as the LPS moves out further across the Tasman.

A UK-born man here on holiday with his family was whingeing about the weather here - "I can't believe it, I travelled 12,000 miles to get away from this kind of weather" . It's winter after all. If you want sun-kissed & short/t-shirt weather - go to Darwin, simple as that. It irks me when many people come here and complain about the weather as they expect all year round sunshine and warm temps - we of course know that's not entirely the case. Sydney's climate is better described as temperate, not tropical.

[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.

[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!"

[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.