So looks like the extreme dew points then won’t be here just yet.
It was 30 deg today but the dew point was around 16-18 degrees for most of the day except the morning and that is pretty much average for this time of year. The BOM Meteye site does show it going up a bit Sat- Wednesday but down again after that .
You can still have a high dewpoint irrespective of the local SST, if the airmass is sourced from deep in the tropics. But consistently high SSTs make periods of wretched humidity more likely, as the standard summer day with a light seabreeze will contain more humidity than normal.
To override the effect of hot SSTs, there needs to be a strong push of temperate air from the south. But Yeppoon is much too far north for these (in summer). Port Stephens to Seal Rocks is about the limit of cooler temperate air in summer.
Yes in summer it doesn’t matter which way the wind is coming from SE NE etc it is warm… the only reason it feels “cool” is the actual movement of the air in the humidity more so than the coolness of it i think … if that makes sense. Sometimes just having clouds in summer makes all the difference too.
Sometimes a strong NE breeze (air would not be cooler ) but because it can be strong sometimes in Spring makes a massive difference . Bit like having a ceiling fan on 1 vs on 3 (maximum).
Thanks for explaining this , you make it easier to understand. Learnt something new .
I wonder if that is why people say Perth feels more humid in summer than it used to . Heard people say when I lived there that you use to be able to count the number of days of muggy weather in Perth on one hand , now people are installing splits because the evap cooling system which used to work don’t work as well.
Is it climate change that is making Australia have long periods of SST’s being high? Seems like the oceans have been warm for ever .
But unfortunately the Tasman Sea is warming faster than just about every other water body on the planet. Off SE NSW and Tasmania it is fairly alarming. You don’t read much about it, but the temperate kelp forests that used to line the eastern Tasmanian coast are basically on life support due to this rapid ocean warming.*** The NSW South Coast (south of Ulladulla) has definitely got more humid in recent years.
In contrast, I think the Southern Ocean off South Australia is one of the slowest. The contraction of the polar jet in the Southern Hemisphere is affecting everywhere though; the net effect is less westerlies and more humid easterlies. In South Australia and especially Western Australia, easterlies also bring more heat.
Perth is a bit unique: the Leeuwin current brings warm water from the tropics in summer, unusual for an eastern boundary current. I think the strengthening of the Leeuwin current may be to blame for the rise in humidity in Perth. And the hotter airmasses that sustained easterlies bring also tend to raise dewpoints, when a light seabreeze develops against these easterlies.
The alert level has been raised at a supervolcano in New Zealand, raising fears of an eruption.
When Taupo last blew in around the year 232 AD, it was the biggest eruption on earth in the last 5,000 years.
An even bigger supereruption 26,000 years ago completely transformed swathes of the North Island and is the most powerful eruption to rock our planet in the last 70,000 years.
And experts have now suggested that the volcano could be in for another - potentially historic - eruption.
Nothing much is happening but it’s quite hypnotic watching these storm chaser live streams on YouTube as they drive around Florida with a category five hurricane coming ashore
It’s looking like a much cooler October so far this year than last . It was 28 deg or higher for 2 weeks of the month last year here and rainfall was below average . Weather was dominated by more northerly winds . The charts were very troughy with storms kicking off in SE Qld. We kept missing out so was about 8mm below average .
Rockhampton averaged 3 deg above average for max temps last October and Yeppoon 1.8 . It was a big change coming out of winter.
Last October the temperature did not drop below 25 deg at all .
By mid October the humidity , clear skies and intense sun was so bad we had the air con on which is unusual for here (2021 it was December ) . It was the start of hell with lots of clear skies (very few clouds for months on end) , high humidity , light winds for weeks on end … we had a wet November and half of December then it was dry until May this year with just random storms breaking the pattern.
In Bendigo, we have already had 38.4mm of rain this month, with 30 of it on Wednesday. October 1 had a bit of rain before some sunny days, then suddenly it became very wet. 2.4mm today, but cloudy right now, with no rain.
Ballarat has had 31.6mm of rain for this month, and from 9 am Thursday to 9 am today being Friday we had 24.8 mm and from 9 am Wed to 9am Thursday we had 6.2mm
The rains have started in Tas now and my place in only a couple of hours already has 17mm of rain but the Airport only a few km away only has 2mm.
The forecasts have increased with the amount predicted, the other day Devonport was forecast to get 70-90mm, it’s now forecast for 90-150mm and other places like Sheffield and Deloraine are set for up to 200mm and some isolated locations may get up to 300mm.
Several flood watch and acts have already been raised including for Latrobe where this event could rival or exceed the flooding event of 2016 which everyone remembers well. It’s been an eerie feeling around, people going about like normal but with the weather closing in and some strong north-easterlies and high humidity making things feel quite strange.
There is some floods in Kangaroo Flat, Bendigo (my suburb) driving by and the river next to APCO is nearly above the bridge, and the other lake on the other side of the road is also overflowing, the water going over the concrete that people cross. Schools are still open that are not flooded as long as you can get to them safely.
Have had a few friends evacuated this morning from around the Railton and Latrobe areas of Tas. Sheffield has had over 100mm of rain and even though Devonport Airport only had 28mm in the 24 hours to 9am at my place actually in Devonport I had over 80mm before my rain gauge stopped working a bit after 7:30am so I would probably have had 90mm since 7pm last night.
