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The Weather Thread

I care SeanE. My elderly parents and other family live there and I do sympathise. NSW is in for a scorcher today also and some parts of NSW on catastrophic fire alert. :(
Tuesday 8th jan- Today is 40 degrees in Perth as well ya know...

Not that anyone east of kalgoorlie seems to realise or care...
 
Tuesday 8th jan- Today is 40 degrees in Perth as well ya know...

Not that anyone east of kalgoorlie seems to realise or care...

We care - several people flew in from perth for the funeral I was at new years eve, they were complaining of the same, nice to get out of the heat for a minute.

But you see you live in 'wishful place' - ie people elsewhere wish to be where you are, especially when we are soaked in winter, so you and Queensland and various tropical paradises, well your warm is considered what you/we wish for.....and the price you pay for being able to plan a barbie a month in advance and not even consider rain plans in case.
 
From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-27/wild-storms-hit-canberra/4486040

Emergency services in the ACT are responding to hundreds of calls for help after a severe storm swept across the area last night.

The storm dumped up to 65 millimetres of rain in some areas of Canberra with strong winds and rain downing trees and power lines and causing flash flooding and leaking roofs.

Some suburbs in the capital's north are still waiting for power to be restored after thousands of homes lost power.

The Calvary Public Hospital in Canberra also lost power for about 20 minutes when its backup generator failed to kick in.

A hospital spokesman says water got into the generator and the issue is being investigated.

No surgery was being performed at the time and no patients were adversely affected.

Emergency services received more than 300 calls for help, mostly for flooding, fallen trees and leaking roofs.

The priority calls were dealt with overnight and crews will get to work on the remainder this morning.

Unfortunately no reports of EMILY lister fabian socialist communist totalitarian greenazi enemy of Oz, God, and humankind, Julia Gillard, having been struck by lightning as of yet but one can continue to hope.

regarDS
 
We moved to Chinchilla last Thursday and just when I was beginning to wonder whether I should just turn around and move back out again the rains came. We are isolated here and some businesses have been inundated and several houses have water just crawling in their floorboards. The waterways around our little town have closed the Warrego Highway - a major truck route - for everyone. You could get all the way to Brisbane if you could just get past the water to the east and you could get all the way to Roma and beyond if you could get past the water actually in the west side of town.

Today the sun is shining and the humidity is cruel.
 
I've just been looking at photos of Maryborough - so much worse than the last floods. It's sunny and humid here now, but the water is still everywhere.

My gym is flooded so I'm going to get fat. :(
 
Im going up north for a few days this is the forecast for the 3 days we will be there (first and last day is just all driving, the car has aircon so doesnt bother me lol)

41, low of 24
41, low of 27
40, low of 26


eeeeep
 
Aww, is it home time yet??

Meanwhile, apart from the odd scorcher here and there, Melbourne is having one of the loveliest summers ever, 30s and not humid, perefect, with a few mid to high 20s.
 
Mellies I *heart* you, especially in summer, but tonight, even with aircon im finding it hard to be comfortable enough to sleep, i see tomorrow you giving us a break, again loves you for that, I loves you more that you arent going back to freezing and we getting consistency, but just letting you know, night baby, you are a hottie
 
19th-century weatherman's trove of records found
By environment reporter Sarah Clarke
Updated 2 hours 51 minutes ago

A northern New South Wales family has uncovered a meteorological treasure in the form of decades of meticulous weather records from more than a century ago.

Farmers are good record keepers of the day-to-day weather on the land, but Algernon Belfield went above and beyond his duty.

For 40 years from the late 1800s, he watched rainfall as well as humidity, cloud movement and wind speeds.

His records were so good that they are now being shared by scientists to help improve the way weather is forecast in Australia.

The rare and unique discovery of his observations started with an annual spring clean at the home of Elspeth and Richard Belfield on the outskirts of Armidale.

"I said to him 'what on Earth are you going to do with these weather records?'," Ms Belfield told AM.

"I had a look at them and they were so complex and we had various people look at them and they all said 'we think these records are incredible'."

With that advice, she sought a second opinion.

That confirmed the little books were in fact some of the most accurate historical weather records in Australia.

"They've since found their place in the national archives, they're in the White House, they're in the UK, they're being studied around the world by various scientific bodies," Mr Belfield said.

The reason the books are so rare is the level of meteorological detail that was observed.

Every day, at the same time from 1878 to 1922, Algernon Belfield set out on foot to the same spot on his property to update his books.

"He would go to his weather station and get all his weather details," Richard Belfield said.

"My father said you would never go there at 8.50 because grandfather was on his mission and you just did not disturb him.

"He did 10 readings - cloud, moisture, all sorts of things every day. There's nothing like them in this period that's come to light so far."

That is a point not lost on Bill Oates from the University of New England.

"Suddenly amidst all these records you find this one particular run of really detailed methodical weather record keeping that sits on this continuous run for 40 years," he said.

"We haven't seen anything like this before. A lot of people record rainfalls, a lot of people are recording for the government meteorologists, but this is just a one-off stand-out set."

As well as the detail that Algernon Belfield kept, the importance of his work is the time these records were taken.

The Bureau of Meteorology officially started standardised records in 1910, and they did not start in the New England district until 1961.

Martin Babakhan from the University of Newcastle does a weekly forecast for farmers and says the data is helping he and others better predict weather here in Australia.

"We are coming up with the tools to give ourselves the best forecasting weather patterns for farmers," he said.

"If you can't understand the past, how can you expect us [to understand the future?]."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-06/weather-books-am/4554930
 
...as with what Medusa said... stay safe all in WA... (let us know how it all went Pecan)... cheers.
 
Little wet and windy today.

Oh god no, more shit coming our way - and it's been bucketing down today & miserable.
On the plus side I got some gorgeous gumboots Saturday - and had to whip them out as it was flooding where I bought them, very satisfying feeling.
 
It's a glorious winter here. Mostly sunny warm days and only really cold overnight.
 
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