Observations - 9th July - 16th July

[Outlooker]

I think 58 pages for the last Obs is about enough.

Weather is fairly warm in SA associated with the cloud band coming through the bight. Temps are also very warm at the resorts. Temps in WA are reducing but not real cold either. Not looking good at the moment.

 

[skiflat]

"Very warm at the resorts"..........?

Currently 0.5 at Buller, -0.9 Hotham, 1.0 at Falls...

 

[Outlooker]

Good point Andee. I went off the Perisher weather obs which are all well and truly in the positives.

Interestingly the top of the Quad at Perisher (1970m) is showing 1.9 Deg and the top of Thredbo (1957m) is showing -1.6 deg. ???

Bottom of Ridge chair at 1630m is at 7.6 deg at 12.00pm.

 

[Donza]

Good point Andee. I went off the Perisher weather obs which are all well and truly in the positives.

Interestingly the top of the Quad at Perisher (1970m) is showing 1.9 Deg and the top of Thredbo (1957m) is showing -1.6 deg. ???

Bottom of Ridge chair at 1630m is at 7.6 deg at 12.00pm.

Perishers thermometers get exposed to dircet sun in some cases.
thredbos up top is the most proper.

 

[adminvb]

I've observed Thredbo is almost always colder than Perisher up top. Not sure if it as Donza has said or that Perisher is kind of a big bowl and traps more heat on a sunny day which then rises? Or Thredbo up top is more of an exposed ridgeline? Or maybe a combination....

 

[Donza]

I've observed Thredbo is almost always colder than Perisher up top. Not sure if it as Donza has said or that Perisher is kind of a big bowl and traps more heat on a sunny day which then rises? Or Thredbo up top is more of an exposed ridgeline? Or maybe a combination....

Personally i just reckon the Perisher ones are bodgy. Too much variation.
Thredbo is pretty up there mind you. Though the top of the quad at Perisher is as well.
the two coldest places at Perisher feel like the terminal quad at BC and the double chair at mount P.

 

[Axe_L_Thief]

I observe it just rained heavily in Newcastle. Just out of curiosity does anyone think this system will deliver enough snow to see International T-bar at Perisher open?

Surely the weather station at the bottom of the Ridge chair is broken, saying 4.5C at 2am where everywhere else is <0

 

[SnowAndrew]

Always check the timestamp on the Perisher weather stations (or any weather station for that matter), as in those environments they do seem to go down at times...

 

[shadow1]

A reasonably good night of snowmaking. -10. Should get up to around 7 max at Thredbo.

 

[Fastlaner]

After a warm night in Adelaide, 15.8C at 6:00am,
the rain has set in and the temps are now down to 12.9C.
The prefrontal cloud didn't seem to have a lot in it.
I thought it would be warmer for longer, so maybe there is a pool of cold air with the front.

 

[Curto]

Always check the timestamp on the Perisher weather stations (or any weather station for that matter), as in those environments they do seem to go down at times...

Yep, there on solar recharge battery power. They quite often go down and need to be manually started up again. They're getting on a bit now so hopefully they may start to use some of the newer ones on the snow making guns, especially at the top of Mt. P.

 

[trappers]

Well Buller is sitting at Zero, but Baw Baw has just shot up, so I guess we can expect the same to happen @ buller too (click for larger)



... Graphs

 

[trappers]

Yep, Interesting to compare those two plots actually. They basically track each other, but the magnitude of the temp variations is much greater at Baw Baw.

 

[ice_man]

Maybe because Baw Baw is lower and therefore daytime has more effect. I don't see the temp there going negative all weekend.

My weekend's a washout. (sorry Sandy I know its OT!)

On topic, I observed the temp at my place shoot to 13 degrees by midday but remained there all afternoon. Didn't get to the forecast 16 degrees... Now down to 10. Latrobe Valley station (my closest BoM station, 20km away and 150 metres lower) only got to 12...

 

[BlueHue]

Spencers Ck came out at 91cm today and Deep Creek at 1600m was 52cm and even 3 mile dam at 1460. Not a bad result at all for this time of year.

Before last weeks storm Spencers was 45cm (that was before the heavy rain even)so that storm has added a good 50cm+ to the base at Spencers. If this weeks snow up high happens as forecast (BOM looks fairly promising) should top the 1 metre mark by next week.

 

[Claude Cat]

Steady drop in temperatures at falls creek (0.3) and hotham (-0.7). The rain is just visible on the western edge (128km) Yarrawonga radar, so hopefully the temps will be around zero or lower when the moisture hits.

 

[Carvemeister]

Blue, any idea what the average depth at spencers is for this time of year...oh and being a newby can someone tell me what IMO means?

 

[Hobber]

IMO = in my opinion

Re 'average' depth - dunno, but you can compare years at the Snowy Hydro Site

http://www.snowyhydro.com.au/snowDepth.asp?pageID=30&parentID=5

 

[Carvemeister]

Cheers...thnx hobber

 

[Carvemeister]

looking at that link you posted hobber I did a comparison with 2000 which was an exceptional year. 2009 seems to be tracking about the same (a little less) so far so we could still end up with a bumper season....fingers...toes and anything else crossed

.
sorry if this is slightly off topic

 

[dickyknees63]

Obs: no warmer than 14.4 today here in the Athens of the South, and that was at 1100. Currently 10.2 C, with a mess of precipitation on local radar.

Prognostication: mark 1 gut feel says more good stuff will drop than predicted. Yee-haa! Back to the cricket, drinks on Day 3.....

 

[Outlooker]

About 3 deg in Jindy. Clear skies and no wind.

Still negs in NSW. I still think 1700 is the mark for tomorrow.

 

[CarveMan]

AWS is reading 0.7 here at Buller, it's windy outside and the snow is soft underfoot.

 

[Luken]

About to start raining in the resorts. Very warm down here in Melb.

 

[Rush]

Huge rainband heading through Geelong right now. Still only light rain in the north of the state, which is probably a good thing from a skiers point of view right now.

 

[luvthabumps]

Horizontal rain at Buller atm. Temps just dipped under zero, but it's certainly still belting down wet stuff in the Village.
Wind has been absolutely howling up here all night. At least there was cricket to watch when you couldn't sleep.

Buller Cup today - just sent a bunch of sarcastic txts to all my mates who are about to take their kids to LBS for racing. Geez I'm glad my son moved to TBR. Moguls.

 

[Claude Cat]

Looks like it's snowing at hotham; there's snow on the road on the live cam.

 

[luvthabumps]

Turning to snow in the Buller Village now. I can see snow sticking to the north facing rock walls beneath the Clock Tower and snow in the lights at the top of the spire.

 

[ice_man]

How can it have not rained much at Baw Baw? Only 2mm overnight - and only 1 less cm of snow cover by the report. Temp there is 0.5 degrees and steady.

The first band didn't appear to have had much in it. We had 7mm - it appears as if few places got half that. There are more bands on the radar in western Vic and SA, but they look pretty haphazard.

 

[CarveMan]

Howling wind up here too, if I go out it will be just to go to Koflers and back, but that's if the joint isn't on wind hold.

 

[CarveMan]

Actually, just read ltb's post about the Buller Cup - Koflers will be chock full of obnoxious race kids - might give that a miss.

Coffee and the papers could be a good morning, then the niece and nephew will be here around lunchtime.

 

[main street]

By the looks of the cams, they're all at the bottom of LBS.....

 

[main street]

Coffee & the papers seems like a wise decision CM !!

 

[CarveMan]

By the looks of the cams, they're all at the bottom of LBS.....

Yes, but on a day like today when there's a race on they hang out at Koflers in between ther runs.

I still think we might head up there though, just to get some fresh air & so we don't feel lazy.

 

[sli1]

I've stumbled into some sort of twitter site with mild references to snow. I'm going to get a coffee, put a pair of trousers in for dry cleaning and come back to observe the cams.

 

[The Plowking]

Nice big band approaching melbourne from the NW

 

[Dr_Cucumber]

-1.1 @ Hotham at 11:00am and snowing. This is a far far better scenario than many were predicting.

 

[luvthabumps]

just started snowing again, quite nicely. Buller Village.

Looks like quite a band of moisture headed our way .

( stopping and starting, but clearly it's cold enough to snow down into the village for any moisture we see today )

 

[Madski]

Lets hope it stays cold enough.

 

[BH]

I am observing the lack of crowds on front valley at perisher. Maybe the financial crisis is starting to hit home....

 

[Brindabella]

Check out the massive low in the northern Tasman Sea. 979!!! where did it come from?

 

[BlueHue]

Awesome!

Hope it lasts but I've seen it before. Snow starts to fall early as a rainband approaches and there is still cold air lingering from before.

 

[Sandy]

Check out the massive low in the northern Tasman Sea. 979!!! where did it come from?

It originated from a trough line extending from a cold front in northern NZ, around the 8th July.

 

[Sandy]

Awesome!

Hope it lasts but I've seen it before. Snow starts to fall early as a rainband approaches and there is still cold air lingering from before.

Bindabella is talking about the deep low 1500 km off QLD-NSW border

 

[sara777]

I am observing that snow conditions on Mt. Perisher look better on Mountain Watch camera than when i was there last Saturday/ Sunday- which it shouldn't be, considering the lack of snowfall- and that the huge band is approaching on my Radar iPhone application to Snowy Mountains since last night- closer and closer- and it's really cool to watch!

 

[The Plowking]

Awesome!

Hope it lasts but I've seen it before. Snow starts to fall early as a rainband approaches and there is still cold air lingering from before.

Bindabella is talking about the deep low 1500 km off QLD-NSW border

And not your usual winter happening , either.

 

[Sandy]

It's certainly unusual..... similar to an east coast low, but not near the coast. They usually form, move east to west, then south down the coast.

That low will most likely hammer the North Island of NZ with rain before it moves off.

Back to topic.

It won't affect Australia.

 

[Camber]

So what have we got falling at the NSW resorts at the moment? I observe moisture on the radar, PB website is saying -1 at moutatin top, have we dodged the rain?

 

[ice_man]

0.8 at Baw Baw at the moment. However, it doesn't appear to be raining. The Village cam even looks frosted up

A friend just told us it's windy as hell up there at the moment...

 

[Rush]

Coffee and the papers could be a good morning, then the niece and nephew will be here around lunchtime.

Time to break out the Lego?

Still blowing a gale in Melbourne.