A fairly nice spread of rain around the immediate Darwin area over the past few days, looks set to continue over the coming week too.
The coolest day of the month yesterday ( Nov 2020 ). Noticeably cooler, yeah ? Well at 33.8c, it's still 0.5c above the long term mean max temp of 33.3c. So when me and the neighbours go around telling each other it was such a nicer cooler day today....well that is an indictment on how fricken hot Nov 2020 has been !
Cheers to you good folks in the tropical weather obs thread. Always interesting to get insights into what goes on up there. Another world from down south. Keep up the good work.
Thanks mate, appreciate it. Coastal storms were doing their thing again this morning just out off Nightcliff.
Coolest day of the month yesterday, only 31.9c. Was still a brutal morning with high humidity and DP's about 25c Was tough on the concreters pouring my son's driveway....I raised a sweat just watching them work !
Nice thunderstorm through Darwin tonight, looked fairly wet too as we were driving back into town from inland where we had been chasing. Here's a shot from Harrison Dam, yeah it was pitch black out there apparently lol
Sure did ! ! Loath as I am to use use flowery descriptive language on a weather page, but Jeez that was a ball tearer of a storm that just passed over the Northern Suburbs. Not a lot of rain ( 14mm at home in 45 mins ), but made up for it with the wind, thunder and lightning ! Had to brew up today earlier than yesterday. We had hot temps and extreme DP's all morning and early afternoon. Many Top End sites had low to mid 30c's and DP's between 25c and 28c. Point Stuart out to the east of Darwin recorded 34.7c and a DP of 30.2c ! That is seriously oppressive ! Here's some pics stolen from Pilko's FB page. | And some from my front verandah. |
Yeah there were a fair bunch of trees and crap chucked all over the road in the Bay view area earlier as I drove through, a few others all busted up etc.
Wildest storm in Stuart Park for a couple of seasons I reckon. Was on the way home from city and pulled over at Westralia St shops. Thought I had got a park clear of trees but then wind changed and bits of trees started dropping on the car from a different direction. Wheelie bins spread across the roads.
To add to this, a second overnight storm blew a bunch more stuff around in the wee hours this morning. AP had 95kph but I suspect winds were considerably higher in places judging by some of the tree damage and vegetation debris laying around the joint this morning. Some more good 24hr rainfall totals around the Darwin area too.
Some extreme heat over the east side of the Territory. Ngukurr ( only 8 years of records ) may well have had its hottest November day yesterday 43.9c. This includes records from the previous site at Ngukurr with sporadic data back to the 1960's Gove Airport up there too - 37.0c , the Groote Eylandt Airport 39.1c, Borroloola the last 2 days 44.1c and 43.7c. I well remember what a horrible climate the 'build up' months were at nearby Roper Bar, we ( a bridge building crew ) did a job out there during the build up / wet of '93-'94. My donga at the Roper Bar Store was right close by the Stevenson Screen, and having an interest in all things weather I used to check the readings each evening and report to the crew having a few beers after work. Eventually the Boss got the sh*ts with it, threatened to put my head through the Screen, saying it was bad for morale telling the blokes it was 40 bloody something every relentless day....hahaha
A shot from yesterdays thunderstorm that went through the rural area, this was shot from the Adelaide River floodplain as the the storm was moving off towards Berry Springs. We observed some significant tree damage along the storms track further to the east.
The Northern Suburbs Dome has been activated the last few days, but the cloud cover certainly cooled things down this afternoon. I was up on my roof before noon clearing storm debris from the other night and it was fair dinkum dangerously oppressive ( and I am fully acclimatised normally ) The Airport topped out at 35.3c around 2.00pm. That is the 15th day this Nov to top 35c, and the monthly mean max ( with one day to go ) is sitting on 35c, a new record for the site. I just had to share this pic ( by Cecelia Rezina ) of the colours looking back towards Fannie Bay from East Point. Stunning ! So when its +33c and a DP of 27c, and you feel snatching it from your job, packing up and 'effing off down south for a coupla months.... just suss out how good the place really is at this time of the year !|
From Weatherzone... "Bureau of Meteorology says the NT experienced its hottest November in 100 years. The Northern Territory has sweltered through record-breaking November heat, recording daytime temperatures roughly 3.1 degrees Celsius above average. New figures from the Bureau of Metrology (BOM) show that in November 2020, most places in Central Australia saw their average jump by 3C during the day and in the Top End, daytime temperatures were between 2C and 3C above average. It's the highest Northern Territory November average since records began in 1910. In November 2019, the NT's monthly temperature was 2C above average ? the fifth hottest and the third-driest on record. This November, the hot air was dragged into the Territory by two high-pressure systems, which stayed consistent for most of the month. "Basically the cause of the warm conditions right around the Territory has been twofold, one in the north which has been a ridge on the Queensland coast which has extended into the Top End and suppressed the showers and storm activity," said BOM senior forecaster Sally Cutter. "Down through Central Australia, there's been troughs continually forming over WA and that's turned the winds northerly, it's just dragged that really hot air down through Central Australia." Apart from small clusters in east and coastal parts of Arnhem Land, the entire Northern Territory also experienced above-average overnight temperatures. Rainfall was also below average throughout the NT, except for a few regions south of the Top End and around Alice Springs, with November 2020 the eighth-lowest since records began. "It sort of goes hand in hand, if you get those really hot temperatures, you need lack of cloud cover and therefore you get reduced amounts of rainfall," Ms Cutter said. The lowest maximum temperature recorded at Darwin Airport was 31.9C on November 24 and its hottest was 37C on the 17th. While in Alice Springs, the warmest daytime temperature came in at 43.5C on the 14th of November while its coolest was on the 16th when it was 28.9C."
Big 'ole guster on this afternoons thunderstorm as it tracked across Lee Point - shot from Rapid Creek.
After a week or so of inaction over the Northern Suburbs, a nice noisy little cell dropped 18.5mm at home commencing 2.00am. Yeah, I'll take it, with promise of a fair bit more in the next day or so. ( South Alligator floodplains pics by Andrew Lehmann )
This afternoon's run from the German ICON model is a bit of an eye opener for the next 7 days! Usually it's one of the more conservative models.
Good old fashioned Darwin storm just now coming in from the south east A nice old fashioned one inch ( 25.4mm ) in an hour between 5 and 6.00pm, the thunder and lightning has gone, but the noise now is the green tree frogs calling for a mate ( might have to try it myself.... my methods don't work.....the calling for a mate that is.... lol ). Temp down from 34c to 25c.....
I've picked up about 130mm of good steady soaking type rain ( mostly falling overnight ) in the last 7 days. The Darwin region is still waiting on that mythical creature, Monsoon Trough, to make it's presence felt. The eastern Top End, the Gulf and parts of the Kimberley coasts have experienced monsoonal type conditions, but the official Australian onset as measured at Darwin Airport hasn't got there just yet. It is a fully overcast day in Darwin atm.....28.2c, DP @ 26c and RH 87%...... it is actually quite trying outdoors, very uncomfortable and sweaty, despite the cool max temp. Light spitting type rain, everything damp, slippery and the mould is not far away..... Trying desperately to not the crack the first beer before 3.00pm.......
Vigorous monsoon flow has continued in the NW Top End overnight with some further nice rainfall accumulations in the region, the Jenkins Road AWS at Noonamah for instance has just passed 170mm overnight and over 400mm MTD with plenty of other sites having already exceeded the December average. Should be a sharp resumption in positive anomalies throughout by months end after some unders in November.
And the heavy cloud cover and rain has kept the max temps way below average in Alice Springs Sat 19th - 40.4c Sun 20th - 28.1c Mon 21st - 23.2c Tue 22nd - 21.7c Wed 23rd forecast 18.0c ! now this is close to the Dec cold max record of 17.1c in 1957.
16.4c in the Alice at 1.30pm ! A coupla days out from Xmas !...... outstanding cold summers day ( peaked so far at 17,8c so not a record ).
Was another cold one in the Alice yesterday too....around the 17c mark most of the day.....but the 9.00am reset this morning will change the daily official recording....19.1 at 8.00am and temp is on the rise.
Current storm in the rural area will see the Noonamah AWS going very close to surpassing half a metre of rain for December, 73mm in quick time so far.
This storm is a fair dinkum ball tearer ! Noony and Batchelor around 100mm in short time. About 30mm in 20 mins in Leanyer Heights....its flogging down as I type !
NT. I’m booked to go to Darwin in 8 weeks for 5 days then Ghan to Radelaide. Being a Corona Beaches resident is making me nervous.
Nigh on 100mm since 5.00pm ! A dead set rippa of a downpour and still raining now !. Yes, I'd be a bit worried too.... a niece of mine has had to cancel her Xmas Darwin trip, being from the northern beaches.
Bit of activity around this morning..... And a fairly trying afternoon with the sun trying to break through the cloud cover.
Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia ( 12.46*S ) 2020 Rainfall, Max and Min temps. Jan - 402.0mm, 32.8c, 26.0c Feb - 216.6mm, 33.4c, 26.8c Mar - 278.2mm, 33.2c, 25.4c Apr - 115.6mm, 33.7c, 25.1c May - 1.4mm, 32.1c, 22.4c Jun - 1.0mm, 32.4c, 21.1c Jul - 0.0mm, 32.0c, 19.2c Aug - 0.0mm, 32.6c, 21.0c Sep - 87.6mm, 33.9c, 23.7c Oct - 162.0mm, 33.6c, 25.3c Nov - 93.0mm, 35.0c, 25.8c Dec - 382.0mm, 32.6c, 25.0c 2020 Totals and means Rainfall - 1740.2mm, Max temp - 33.1c, Min temp - 23.7c. Yearly mean of 28.4c Hottest day 37.0c on Sept 8th and Nov 17th Coldest day 25.0c on May 22nd Hottest night 29.7c on Feb 26th| Coldest night 16.2c on July 30th Wettest day 113mm on Oct 8th.
Pretty quiet up in the Top End.... as usual when a Gulf Cyclone ( Imogen ) tracks east into FNQ, they tend to steal our rain. ( I scored my first precipitation for 2021 overnight with 4mm. Its actually been blowing its ring off the last few nights with warm dry westerlies and high cloud cover keeping the overnight mins +29c, which is up there for as about as hot a January night gets at the Darwin Airport. We're running 1.7c above for max temps and 2.5c above for min temps this first 5 days of January and some crappy high DP's too.....
A much more active afternoon, with a storm rumbling away to the south east. Been a rather trying day, 33.6c and DP's above 25c. A bit of rain would be a welcome relief ! A pic of the brewing storm from near my house.
