Melbourne and Victoria daily weather commentary

Interesting weather about the state over the past couple of days thanks to the trough. We had a few spits here and there yesterday with quite windy northwesterlies. Its the complete opposite today with clear blus sunny conditions and the temperature up to around 16.

Left for Mansfield sat morning, arrived to some nice light drizzle. Mild night and some fantastic rainfalls during the night, was woken a few times to that lovely sound on a tin roof. Had just planted out some tree's so the rain was perfect timing. I see the total was 24.2mm. Today was a beautiful day, we were driving away from some big black clouds in the north about 3pm.

A Springlike 17.2c here today with mostly sunny skies, getting very tired of this weather. were are the cold and wet winters that we used to have gone. Still less than half the monthly average here. And whats with these HP systems tracking at about 50 south? And all these cut of lows that peak in the bight and then weaken, less than two mm's of rain in the last 10 days here.

Well another sunny and crisp day here with light winds. It felt really nice in the sun. This afternoon though I could see the cloud increase to my southwest and as I was locking in the cows I could see distant lightning flashes from a thunderstorm over the ocean and another seperate storm/s to my NW. Hopefully they continue to move closer to me.

Mild weather extending ridiculously late into the season. May as well be May (if that makes sense) this is late Autumn weather. Aside from one decent cold spell and outbreak it has been mid to high teens in Melbourne pretty much every day and low double figure max temps here. Normally at this time of year we rarely get a day above 10C so that shows just how mild it has been this month, the max temps have been hovering mostly between 10C and 12.5C the past week or two.

Hopefully we'll get slammed by the approaching LWT which is a beauty in the progs. It will still be fairly mild but also moist atmosphere and we're stuck in unstable NW for a few days which hopefully will send down some large accumulated totals here. Not liking the zonal pattern after that with westerlies and then yet another huge blocking high, it doesn't really look like returning to true winter temperatures, it should get cold again but nothing like mid winter should be.

Amazing how calm its been the last few days, right through the levels, virtually no steering winds whatsoever. Which makes it fell even milder than it already is. Strange season, late April we had blizzard conditions in the Alps and we were dying of frostbite and 10 degree temps, then 8 weeks later you would think it would be freezing but the blocking patterns are being persistent. Even more frustrating is that many systems have either developed just passed us or missed us by the preverbial...hopefully next week looks like we might start to see something decent.

Another calm and generally sunny day here with light winds after extensive morning fog and frost patches. The temperature reached to about 16. Some afternoon cloud again - cumulus congestus actually - but nothing of significance.

Absolutley horendous on the roads tonight. I hope everyone keeps safe driving with the fog. As you probably know by now, I am on my learners and we went to Warrnambool today in beautiful blue sunny weather (except for the afternoon when some convection occured, though no significant weather) but coming home this evening the fog reduced visibility to less then 5 metres in spots. Kind of scary and I was driving so slow, as was everybody else.... Temp reached to around 15 today.

Morning fog and frost cleared this morning to a fine and sunny day with temperatures around 15 degrees, though some afternoon cloud built in from the west and we saw a light shower, nothing substantial. Looks like a few more light showers tonight and I should be able to see some lightning out at sea too.

a fine day here in Ballarat after a freezing start with frosts. Became rather windy and cloud has increased. Have had a spit or two on dark. The radar looks interesting with the tail of the coldfront approaching Mt Gambier with embedded thunderstorms. The rest of the week looks very interesting with lots of talk of lots of rain and getting very cold with thunderstorms with hail predicted. wouldn't be surprised if snow gets down around the hills here later in the week.

A very pleasant weekend in the Dandenongs with max's both days of 11C. No rain to report and no fog - both mornings it burnt off in the valley before rising up the hill.

Another "warm" winters day up here with 12.4C as a max. Surprisingly humid with things staying wet all day from the 1mm of rain this morning.

it was a very warm day. From here, the clouds to the north were amazing! I would even say Mt Macedon was covered in either fog or low cloud while here is was warm and sunny all day. 17.8c as a max here.

Yeah mate was a very mild day for this time of the year its not often we get to 18c right at the end of June coming into July felt mild almost Springlike

I must admit, I was saying that as I was driving along the Bacchas Marsh-Gisborne road this afternoon! Very springlike today. But a springlike day is nearly always a precursur to a winterlike week!

It did look springlike with the convection triggered by the warm uppers and moisture profile.

Let's hope tomorrows system behaves like a spring time front with rain and storms!!

Karl Lijnders wrote:Let's hope tomorrows system behaves like a spring time front with rain and storms!!

It will

well so far we have had, an early shower, very windy conditions, sun is now shining and I am sitting here in short sleeves! Yes it must be spring on the 30th June!

From a press release put out today... http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/vic/20090630.shtml

We certainly need lots of rain.

DJ

Melbourne experiences record dry in first half of 2009

Melbourne has had a record dry start to the year, with just 126.2 mm falling from January to June according to Bureau of Meteorology rainfall data. This is 8 mm below the previous record of 134.5 mm set in 1967, and less than half the long-term average of 307mm.

The very dry start to this year extends the long drought which has affected Melbourne and most of southeastern Australia since late 1996.

“The last time Melbourne’s annual rainfall was above average was 1996,” said Dr Stern, Manager of Climate Services at the Bureau’s Victorian Regional Office.

“Over the twelve years of this drought Melbourne has now missed out on 1.8 metres of rain, representing three years of average rainfall,” Dr Stern said.

“It is going to take many years of good rainfall to remove these deficiencies,” he said.

While some welcome showers are expected in Melbourne this week, the seasonal outlook suggests that below average rainfall is more likely than not to continue for the next three months.

“There is about a 60 per cent probability that July to September will experience below average rainfall,” said Dr Stern.

Melbourne’s official rainfall record began in April 1855.

well what a day! warm sunny and very windy at the start. Clouds come through with the change and rain fell...YAY!!!! 3mm of rain, better than nothing!

Min: 12.5 max: 19.1

but Avalon's 21.7 was amazing!!!

A bit of a let down here in Carrum, just a bit of wind and 30 min of light rain.

Congrats on getting this up and running karl!

I look forward to robust debate like we used to have in the good old days!

FROM MELBOUNE WATER

DAMS HAVE SECOND-DRIEST START TO YEAR

The reconnection of Tarago Reservoir provided the only real boost to storage levels in what has been an extremely dry first half of the year for Melbourne’s storages.

Between 1 January and 30 June, Melbourne’s major catchments received 258 mm of rain, which was 42% below the long-term average.

As a result, reservoirs only received about half (64.1 billion litres) of their average inflows for the first six months of the year – slightly better than the record low set in the first six months of 2008. The third-lowest inflow figure for the first half was in 1967.

Despite a 22 billion litre boost from the reconnection of Tarago Reservoir and lower water use, storages dropped from 34.9% at the start of the year to 26.0% at the end of June.

Manager of Water Supply, John Woodland, said storages normally recovered in the second half of the year but would have a lot of ground to make up before next summer.

“The reservoirs have now had their two poorest starts to the year on record, back to back,” he said.

“These latest figures show the importance of diversifying our water sources with desalination and savings from irrigation upgrades, as well as more recycling and ongoing water conservation.

“With the reconnection of Tarago, Melbourne now has a total of 470 billion litres of water in storage. This will help see us through until the rest of the major water projects come online, but we need to keep saving to maintain a healthy buffer,” added Mr Woodland.

Melbourne households have now achieved Target 155 for 16 weeks in a row.

DRY START TO WINTER – IMPACT OF JUNE 2009 ON STORAGES An average of 59.6 mm of rain was received over the four major catchments during June, compared with the 30-year average of 106.1 mm (43.8% below normal).
Inflows into reservoirs in the four major catchments totalled 14.6 billion litres in June, compared with the 30-year average of 39.3 billion (62.8% below normal).

Overall June consumption (all uses) dropped by 2.9% compared to June last year.

STORAGE COMPARISON TO RECENT YEARS (as at 30 June)2008: 29.5%
2007: 30.7%
2006: 48.0%
2005: 52.2%

had some showers this afternoon which was great! But looks like something substantial is on its way! cant wait!

There was some sun but it was a mostly cloudy day.

It got to 13 today here.

Wilsons prom have had some good rain over 100mm

cant really report on much again. Just some wind, some cloud, some sun, a shower or 2 and that's all. Nothing like other parts of melbourne.

maybe only 0.5mm if that!

so far this month we only have had probably 5mm as well.