Crikey it’s wet

[red750]

37 deg in Melbourne today. 39 out our way. We are always a degree or two hotter than the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Nearly the hottest Place in Australia. I was in Brighton for a Birthday Party. Nev

[onetrack]

Interestingly, the W.A. Dept of Agriculture did a study on evaporation levels from farm dams quite a number of years ago. They discovered that greater levels of evaporation occurred on warm windy nights from farm dams, than during the day - and especially where the dam mouth faced the prevailing winds (South-Easterlies in the lower part of W.A.).

 

This was due to the fact that the amount of wind played a larger part in evaporation, than the hot sun during the day. Quite often, hot sunny days here have relatively low levels of wind, and it's the wind that moves the evaporated moisture.

[spacesailor]

On a ' hot & low moisture day ' .

I put up more shade-cloth . makes a great difference. 

At the end of summer.  I had 2/3rds of the back garden covered .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

Winds tend to die down at night near the surface bit not at altitude,. Nev

[red750]

Typical stupid Melbourne weather. Nearly two straight weeks of hot to very hot weather, with one day where it's pissing down rain - the day of the F1 Grand Prix.

 

Let's hope it's not like that in two weeks, for the Avalon Air Show, not that I'm likely to go. I'm a bit beyond that now, but my daughter will probably go. She;ll have to take the photos for me.

[facthunter]

I keep looking and I can't see you getting much  rain. Humidity deals with the other factors. Relative or absolute.  Who's JUST talking about temperature.? Cold air doesn't carry much moisture, The south pole is as dry as a desert.  Tropical Maritime air masses have the most water. Nev

[pmccarthy]

We had 13 mm today and have the heater on.

[red750]

Me;bourne's lovely weather surely screwed up the F1 GP, with cars spinning and sliding everywhere, with 5 cars unable to finish , including Jack Doohan, and Oscar Piastri sliding onto the grass and losing about 14 places, but managed to recover and claw his way back into the points. Even Lewis Hamilton did a bit of a waltz.

[facthunter]

Driving on slicks. Ordered to do so by the team manager,. Nev

[old man emu]

Well it finally rained at my place over the past two days. I don't have a gauge, but looking at the BOM reports I probably got about 50 mm. The first day it was steady rain that soaked in and yesterday it was a lot heavier. It's stopped now and the sky is clear. Augers well for washing day tomorrow. I can hear the creek through the property running, and the frogs are starting their mating calls.

[Marty_d]

49 minutes ago, old man emu said:

...and the frogs are starting their mating calls.

Stay strong OME. None of them are princes.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Hmmm.. Would OME want to kiss frogs in the hope of a prince?

[old man emu]

3 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Hmmm.. Would OME want to kiss frogs in the hope of a prince?

That's a bit queer.

[facthunter]

I said you'd get rain Friday. Be lovely and green soon. Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Be lovely and green soon

Sooner than you think.

The cockies around here seem to be happy. They are saying that they will be sowing by Easter. 

 

I'm amazed at how grain production has changed since the 1970s. No more burning stubble, or ploughing it in. With GPS controlling the tractors they now sow between the rows of standing stubble from the previous crop. GPS also control the headers at harvest time. The most the driver has to do is monitor the harvester's progress to avoid trees and engage the unloading auger when the field bin comes alongside. Other than that it's just a matter of monitoring systems and watching out for things that could damage the machine.

 

As for temporary storage of harvested grain, they now have a method of filling storage tubes using a method similar to that used to fill sausages. Then they can store the grin in the field until is is convenient to sell it off. No more spending days lined up at a Grain Corp silo waiting a turn to unload. 

 

The mind boggles at the financial investment in machinery and such required for 'profitable' farming these days.

[red750]

Weird weather lately in Victoria. A few days with only 2 or 3 mm of rain. Worst drought in years. So bad they've had to fire up the desalination plant, and rationing is on the cards.

 

And last night was the coldest this time of year for 79 years. Minimums of 2 deg in the city, -1 in the eastern suburbs and -5 deg at Coldstream. Supposed to be colder tomorrow, before winds turn northerly and end frosts for a while.

 

 

 

[onetrack]

We had the hottest Summer I can recall since the heatwave of 1962, then we had a little bit of rain in March, and absolutely nothing since. It's been an endless Summer, we had 34° on the 9th May, nearly a record high for May.

It's been endless sunny days, and no real rain in sight. The weather pattern is like Mid-Summer, huge high pressure systems sitting in the Bight, blocking the cold fronts and making them slide away to the S.E. without any impact on the State.

A lot of farmers are worried that it's going to be a drought year. There's talk of the 80 year drought cycle coming around again, there was a huge drought in 1944-45, and the Eastern States were worse affected than W.A. in those two years.

The BOM reckons there's a decent cold front coming through on Friday and Saturday, but I'm convinced we won't see any rain until the first week of June. We have a lot of rainfall catch-up to do.

[Jerry_Atrick]

They're talking about a drought in England this summer..

[pmccarthy]

I'm back home now where it’s dry as dust. In April/ May we drove from Bath to Orkney and did I not see rain for six weeks. Hope you get some soon.

[facthunter]

Constant rain on the NSW Central Coast. Flooding in the Hunter valley.  Nev

[onetrack]

Yes, the weather picture in NSW is staggering in its extremes. The Hunter Valley region is being washed away with 200mm rainfalls, while the Riverina and the Murray are in massive drought, which is still ongoing. Welcome to Australia, land of fires, floods and drought.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/weather-warnings-for-nsw-live-blog/105311220#live-blog-post-181767

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/farmers-sell-stock-as-drought-deepens-riverina-southern-nsw/105300140

 

Edited May 19 by onetrack

[old man emu]

At the moment I'm watching a patch of rain skillfully skirting around my place as it does with regular monotony. The wind is blowing strongly and it is overcast. When knows when it will rain here.

[kgwilson]

Here on the North Coast of NSW we have had the wettest late Summer & Autumn I can remember. Since ex tropical cyclone Alfred in late February/early March there have been few fine sunny days.

 

The problem is that the high pressure anti cyclones have remained to the South of the country when they normally migrate North as Summer comes to a close. This means that there is an Easterly flow on to the mid North to North East coasts which pick up moisture from the Tasman & drops it along the coastal fringe. Troughs develop and we get plenty of showers, many heavy & then as now a major trough has developed & everywhere from Taree to Coffs has been hit by a massive deluge. This morning i emptied 135mm from my rain gauge. The ground has been sodden since early March & there is water & mud everywhere. Already we have had 1200 mm year to date.

 

This pattern has meant massive drought for the West of NSW & Victoria & it is sad to see the state of farms and livestock there. Hopefully as this current trough moves South a bit will get to those who desperately need it.

[old man emu]

Looking at the radar, it seems that the Great Divide is doing just that - dividing the flooded east from the dry west. I'm glad in a way that the heavy rain has passed my place by.  There's been enough to freshen the ground and maybe give the recently planted wheat a sprouting boost. But the area is not immune from very serious flooding if it rains heavily in the headwaters of the Castlereagh River.