Fantastic storm overnight in Brisbane. A month’s total of rain in a single hour. Won’t be enough to break the drought, but we needed something.
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BOM said more rain last night than in the last 6 months!
Siri - “what is it called when water falls from the sky?”
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First day of 40C or above for Perth for the next 4 days
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And my verandah is flooded from yet another downpour. Yay 
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Tasmania: The state where hot temperatures are not nearly as common as in the mainland.
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Here in Perth, we have had 3 consecutive days above 40 degrees. Yikes.
An unprecedented heatwave in Western Australia will make its way to central and south eastern Australia, bringing blistering temperatures. These parts includes much of South Australia, Victoria and south and central parts of NSW. A 50 degree day in AUstralia is possible.
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Also half of Perth is/was burning.
Anyone watching the cricket on Friday would’ve seen the Belmont racecourse on fire.
Gee was that scary, I work in West Perth and could see the flames from my window. Second time in about two weeks that location has been on fire.
Hopefully this is the end for this summer.
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Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the fire season is only just beginning for WA and for the southern states. The 737 air tanker was redeployed from NSW to the fire in Perth’s northern suburbs; we really need several of them as the fire situation here hasn’t really relented. Nothing short of a military style response is required this season.
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There were smoke around Bull Creek yesterday evening
Considering the strength of the wind earlier in the week we were pretty lucky it was mainly limited to one big fire in a mostly unpopulated area of the very northern edge of the metro area, would have been really bad if any fires of a similar nature went up in the hills.
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Yesterday whilst bringing in the washing, I noticed that there was a lot of smoke haze coming from the south east of Perth metro area. I believe that the smoke is coming from Jarrahdale area. This morning, there was smoke around Perth CBD. Perth had a very hot start to summer and I think that we can see the hottest average December on record.
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There is a large fire burning near Collie I believe; this would bring smoke into Perth on a S-SE wind.
A fresh SE’ly blowing here now and the smoke’s completely gone for the moment; you’d hardly know we’re in a fire crisis. That will change later in the week though. Unfortunately it looks like some houses were lost in the Blue Mountains due to literal friendly fire, a backburn that got away:
Backburning is the only viable method of containment at the moment given the scale of this particular fire. Still, heads will probably roll.
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That’s what I feel like doing sometimes,
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I think I would move down there if it wasn’t for the isolation factor. Tassie’s climate is great for the warmer months of the year but can be too windy for too long in the cooler months. There’s not a lot of snow either unless you’re prepared to live near the Great Lake (isolated as you get and that was threatened by fire last year).
It may still be an option when I get to retirement age; will have to see how bad it gets on the mainland. Southern NZ may still be a better option but places like Queenstown and Wanaka are ridiculously expensive (thank the tourists for that). Te Anau is probably less expensive but it’s a little isolated- no hospital there, and a long drive to Queenstown for a proper airport.
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The last few summers all we hear in Tasmania is about how it’s heatwave after heatwave in Australia and everything is getting hotter and hotter… yet it’s been just like winter some days the last couple of months down here. Finally starting to get a bit of warm weather now and approaching the longest day I noticed it was still reasonably light in the sky well after 9pm last night.
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It is getting hotter and hotter on the mainland but in Tassie you’re surrounded by the Southern Ocean and Bass Strait, which work to moderate (significantly cool) hot airmasses arriving from the North Island. This is especially true for NW Tassie where I think you are (Devonport)?
Hobart and especially the NE coast of Tassie actually cops heat because NW-W winds must descend the Central Plateau. The continental airmass regains much of its heat through this mechanism. Even the weather station on Flinders Island has recorded above 40C because terrain in the centre of the island warms the air when winds are N-NE’ly.
As for the wintry weather in Tassie of late, it’s a symptom of the current state of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Basically cold fronts (westerlies) have been further north than normal for spring and summer, leading to cooler weather for TAS and parts of VIC but hot, dry conditions for NSW and QLD. I wrote a post the other week explaining it all; scroll up if you’re interested.
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My family are currently planning to do this in 12 months time. Not to Tasmania, but to Canberra. Canberra does get hot in Summer, but it’s no where near as relentless as we are used to in North QLD.
As with the article, the number one reason we’re moving is climate. We have a nice house and great jobs here, but just can’t stand the weather anymore.
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Canberra has pretty much the same annual average temperature as somewhere like Launceston, it’s just more continental with warmer summers and cooler winters. If you go somewhere a little higher such as Bungendore the annual average temp is the same as Devonport (12.5C, compared to 18C for Sydney and about 21C for Brisbane). But the 6-8 weeks from now until early Feb looks like it will be very tough in Canberra from now on; best to take annual leave end Jan/early Feb (after school hols) I think.
At least in Canberra you have plenty of options to escape the heat. It’s a 2.5 hour drive to the Snowy Mountains for example, and 1.5 to the South Coast for the beach. The cooler, less humid Victorian coast around Marlo is also easily doable for a short stay (a little far for a day trip, though). Same goes for the Victorian Alps.
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