Minus 13 degrees – the coldest it’s been in April
From Weatherzone – Brett Dutschke,
Wednesday April 29, 2009 – 14:58 EST
A new Australian record was set early this morning, a temperature of minus 13 degrees, at Charlotte Pass on the Snowy Mountains.
This is the lowest temperature recorded anywhere in Australia in April and is 13 below the average. Nearby at Perisher it dipped to minus 11 degrees and at the top of Thredbo it dipped to minus 10.
Across the border, on the Victorian Alps April records were broken at Mt Hotham where it chilled to minus eight degrees and Mt Buller and Falls Creek where it got as low as minus seven.
A few other locations set April low temperature records also. In Tasmania Lake Leake was as cold as minus six, Sheffield and Dover both reached minus one and Flinders island got to zero. Hobart had its coldest April night in 46 years, recording a low of 1.7 degrees, seven below average.
While much of inland NSW and Victoria will be colder tomorrow morning than it was this morning under clearer skies, the Alps should be a little warmer due to a rise in humidity.
Note, all temperatures in the story above are in Centigrade. Photo and map added by Anthony.
Here are the all-time highs and lows for the continent of Australia (source Perth Weather Center)
HIGHEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE:
- Oodnadatta, South Australia 50.7 C (123.3 F) on the 2nd January, 1960
LOWEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE:
- Charlotte Pass, New South Wales -23.0 C (-9.4 F) on the 29th June, 1994
While this is certainly a significant new cold record this early in Australia’s fall going on winter, one must always remember that weather is not climate. – Anthony
(h/t to WUWT reader “Chuck”)
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Falls Creek, a resort just a little to the south of Charlotte’s Pass and Perisher in Victoria had 1metre of snow over the last 2 days. Unprecedented almost I would think for April. Also some of the same towns just north of Melbourne that were badly damaged by the fires in February have now also received snow.
Looking forward to a great ski season in Aus. As stated earlier at the time of the fires, our deadpan Climate Change Minister, “Penny Wong” reportedly said at the time of the fires that the fires were “Climate Change in action”. She’ll probably say that this cold weather is evidence of the variability of Climate Change. Thats the trouble, Global Warming (aka Climate Change) is a non-falsifiable theory, everything supports Climate Change.
Oh well, at least the skiing will be good. Perisher is a top spot if any people want to come over.
Don’t forget, those temps are all Celsius in Aus. We don’t refer to Centigrade in Australia.
I reiterate my post from another thread, it *has* been cold this spring, summer and now autum is proving to be quite noticeably colder thans last year here further east in Sydney. Winter will be cold too, it’s inevitable as we move further away from a “quiet” Sun. Seems to strike a familiar cord with the NH, so much snow, in your winter.
Oz, the giant cruise ship heading for Antarctica !
Also, we don’t use the term “Fall” in Aus at all. It is “Autumn”.
I clearly remember the hot records that were broken in Australia at several locations were not reported here at all, although they were all-time absolute maximum temperatures. Now, a record cold for April is the headline. Weather is not climate, we all agree on this. But where does this tendency to “forget” hot records come from?
REPLY: I dunno “Flanagan” where does your tendency to be an annoying phantom Internet troll coward come from? People send me things, I notice things, I report them, such as the recent California heat wave and the recent cold snap in Australia.
Ask the New York Times why they reported on the California heat wave and not the Australian April low. Lets see it Flanagan, put that question to them and post the answer here. Do something useful that backs up your snark for a change.
My point to you: If you don’t like what is or is not reported here, don’t visit. – Anthony Watts
I can see the headlines now…”Ozone Depletions Responsible for Record Low in Australia.”
We all know that record highs (no matter how localised) are proof of global climate change and proof of man = bad and record lows are proof of temporary changes in local weather = irrelevant . This is the AGW Alarmist viewpoint and nothing short of a return to a full blown ice-age will change that.
I look at this Bureau of Meteeorology graph for Southern Hemisphere cooling and I reckon we are in for a cold one here in Western Australia this winter.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/reg/cli_chg/g_timeseries.cgi?variable=global_t®ion=sh&season=0112
It will be very telling if Bluff Knoll, the 1,000 metre high point in WA’s southwest gets more than its usual one or two days of snow. This has not happened in the 29 years that I have been here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluff_Knoll
http://www.feargod.net/wa-snow2a.php
If this were 13 degrees above average and a new warm record for Australia it would be milked by the AGW religion till the cows came home. Just like the Victorian Bushfires got blamed on AGW when it was simply a stationary high pressure system in the Tasman redirecting hot air from up north. With a cooling PDO, quiet sun and Lake Eyre filling it looks like being a cold, wet (read snowy) year for Australia. But then last year Mt Ruapehu in NZ had a 5m snow depth record – 1.5m more than the snow record pole – so I suppose its not that unusual 🙂
Isn’t the northern hemisphere still getting significant snowfalls?
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=MT&prodtype=warnings
So we are getting winter conditions in both hemispheres at once – isn’t this at least a little worrying!
“Trevor (05:18:35) :
Also, we don’t use the term “Fall” in Aus at all. It is “Autumn”.”
I leave the “n” off Autumn so as not to confuse people. That’s my excuse and I am stciking to it *ahem*.
Silly Aussies. Don’t you know the SH temperature anomoly for April is going to be +0.3?
Leave it those folks down under — always having to do things in a big way. Wonder how many winter weather records they’ll smash this winter season.
vukcevic (05:17:27) : Oz, the giant cruise ship heading for Antarctica !
So…you are really insinuating something very important: For it to be true temperatures should have “migrated” southwards: From antarctica to Canada, from Canada to the USA, the equator way south (The magnetic equator it is at latitude 12°30´south) . Does temperatures follow magnetic fields?
Off the topic … can someone tell me where sunspot data was collected earlier in the 20th century (e.g. 1913) … where were the observatories located?
Jon
Trevor give us a break with the semantics Gerard also in OZ
vukcevic (05:17:27) I forgot to follow going down: The south pole then would be traveling to Australia !!
vukcevic (05:17:27) In my 1st.post where antarctica, read Artic.
How much colder will it get if we don’t stop AGW now?
“. . . one must always remember that weather is not climate. – Anthony”
Unless we are members of congress – then it is “climate change” or “evaporation”.
I actually heard about this first on the ABC news (Aus), which is a little surprising as its usually the first to jump on the warming bandwagon.
Australia’s climate can be found in any Atlas or 5th grade geography text book. It has not changed. There have been weather pattern variation, but no climate change. Unless someone managed to shove the continent (or just parts of it) to a different latitude, longitude, and/or altitude. In my opinion, the only thing worth discussing is weather pattern variation. Carry on Anthony. You post exactly the kinds of topics I LOVE to read and discuss.
Good photo – but surely the snow cover thickness is thin and surely it is only first or second year snow.
Things have been a bit wintery in Montana this late April too: http://rwis.mdt.mt.gov/scanweb/swframe.asp?Pageid=RPUStatus&Units=English&Groupid=301000&Siteid=301001&DisplayClass=Java&SenType=All;
Also, see: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20090429/NEWS01/904290301
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Monday evening, the flakes started falling. By Tuesday night, the snowfall was within striking distance of a record for the calendar date. By 9:30 Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service office in Great Falls had recorded more than 6 inches of snow since the storm began, and more than 5 inches since the stroke of midnight.
The record for April 28 in Great Falls stood at 7.7 inches, and with continuing steady snow predicted, meteorologist Dave Williamson said there was a good chance that record would fall.
He also predicted another six to 10 inches of snow before the storm tapers off, probably early Thursday morning.
“It has the potential of being a pretty good juicer,” he said.
The Browning and Babb areas are among the hardest hit so far, accumulating about 2 feet of snow, Williamson said. Hobson reported 10 inches and towns along the Rocky Mountain Front including Choteau and Dupuyer had a foot of snow.
Schools in Power and Conrad sent students home early Tuesday, and the Dutton/Brady, Power, Vaughn, Ulm, Fairfield and Sun River districts all canceled today’s classes.
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So, if we have record cold and snow as far south as Australia and as far north as Montana at the same time, how much more GW can we stand???