Weather Chaos Down-Under

This morning climate change made the headlines on Radio New Zealand
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I suspect that this has as much to do with Obama's "legacy" and the need to give the impression of doing something, as much as anything.

Meanwhile, facts on the ground are just plain inconvenient and if you believe the President's words are going to make a difference I have a bridge-to-nowhere to sell you.

Meanwhile,weather Down-Under is pretty chaotic.

Australia has been seeing some unprecedentedly cold weather this winter with snow In Tasmania today and even in Brisbane a while ago while other areas are seeing high temperatures - in the mid-20's in Sydney 

In the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney there has been a bush fire - IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER.

In Zealand weather is very unsettled.The country has seen several extreme weather events over a short period of time, including almost record cold (minus 20 centigrade) measured last month.

Weather, are you for real? It’s hotter than summer and bitterly cold at the same time in this Aussie state

News.com.au

4 August, 2015

SOME ridiculously cool weather stuff has been happening today. And when we say “cool”, we mean it both literally and figuratively.

You might have heard about the snow that fell all the way to sea level in Hobart this morning. The images below show you all you need to know. Proper snow hasn’t fallen all the way to the beaches of Tasmania since 1986, when Hobart’s Tasman Bridge closed.

A rare opportunity to make a snowman and sand castle at the same time. Photo by Patrick Fasnacht Source: News Corp Australia

It’s the latest cold outbreak in a three week spell of consistently frigid temperatures in Australia’s eastern half. But something else has been happening today too. In parts of Australia’s east, it’s incredibly warm.

Powdery sand at Cremorne Beach, Hobart. Photo by Judy Botham Source: News Corp Australia

If you were lucky enough to be in Sydney this weekend, you would have experienced two gorgeous days in the mid 20s. This reporter sat on the hill at an NRL game in a T-shirt and came home with mild sunburn.

Today, even as the cold air coating Tassie with snow has moved north, the northern tip of New South Wales remains super warm. As we write this on Monday mid-afternoon, parts of the north-east of the state are nudging 29 while at the weather station at the top of Thredbo, it’s minus five degrees.

That’s a discrepancy of 34 degrees between the warmest and coldest locations in the same state in real time. The Bureau of Meteorology has no statistics on real time weather comparisons between locations. But we believe this could be a record.

Put it this way. In Evans Head today, scene of a recent shark attack, it reached 28.3 degrees. That’s higher than the maximum in January, the hottest month of the year.

Anyone travelling has definitely noticed the contrast.

This is what every Monday morning should look like ?￢ﾘﾀ️#ByronBay pic.twitter.com/OsCtTItJK7

— James Fewtrell (@jamesfewtrell) August 2, 2015

Left Terang yesterday when it was 6C. Currently 25.5C in Brisbane. Warm weather is the worst.

— Kyle Pollard (@KylePollard) August 3, 2015

So why is it happening?

Well, before you get a really strong push of cold air from the south, you often get a really warm stream coming down from the north. Look at today’s 10am weather chart.

Low pressure systems (like the L 991 near Tassie) are these big excellent whirling weather monsters which drive winds in several directions simultaneously. That’s why on one side of the low it can be super warm and absolutely freezing on the other. Source: NewsComAu

It’s all about the grey lines, which are called isobars. See how the isobars represent an airflow pushing up from the deep frigid south? Now, can you also see how around the NSW/QLD border, there’s a bit of a hump in the isobars on the coast?

That’s the point at which air is still coming from the dry, warm interior of Australia, bringing with it some unseasonably lovely beachy weather. And here are the numbers:

This is a live BoM Meteye screenshot we took around lunchtime. In the top right, summer! Lower down, not so much. Image: bom.gov.au. Source: NewsComAu

We could get more scientific than that but we’d both probably fall asleep. Instead, enjoy some more pics of snow and sand and everything else in between on this wintry, summery, bitterly cold, gorgeously warm August day.

In New South Wales there has been a bushfre - IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER

Winter blaze in NSW, Australia

Tablelands Rd Wentworth Falls Blue Mountains NSW

This temperature anomoly chart tells the story for this part of the Southern Hemisphere

 Sea temperatures to the south of Australia and around New Zealand are cooler than average.

But, seen in the context of what is happening in the Pacific as a whole, this is anomalous

This screenshot from Nullschool today shows the turbulence

To read what NIWA in New Zealand is saying about el-Nino GO HERE

Average Nov-Apr El Niño wind anomalies (NIWA)

Average Nov-Apr La Niña wind anomalies (NIWA)

COMMENTS (SMR)

There is nothing normal about weather patterns here.In fact, I think we can dispense with the term ‘weather patterns’.

NIWA, the government and media are underplaying climate change to the max – NEVER is it so much as mentioned as even a possible factor here.

Climate change, to the extent it is acknowledged at all (it’s in the headlines today because of Obama’s latest statements) is always somewhere else, and in the far distant future.

If there is a drought it will be caused by el-Nino or some proximate cause.

There is no connection between el-Nino conditions and climate change.

Even the el-Nino itself is being underplayed in this country and being reported in terms of what NORMALLY happens,

“New Zealand is not usually affected as strongly by El Niño conditions as are parts of Australia, but there is nevertheless a significant influence”.

It is hard to find media coverage that reports on the possible severity of what awaits us this autumn and summer let alone places this in the context of what is happening elsewhere on the planet.

In fact there is a deafening silence about what is happening climatically in the rest of the planet.

About the melting ice in the Arctic – not a word

In fact, about the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet – not a word.

For what it is worth, sitting at the bottom of the North Island I have observed that we have had several years of drought (whether declared or not). In winter we have had several extreme rain episodes but the land has never really recovered from previous drought.

Last year, on the farm where we keep the horses the wetland dried out completely for the first time in the 8 years I’ve been there.

Although it appears there has been some recovery the wetland is still pretty dry relative to the previous 7 years and where the land would be normally in mud it is relatively dry for this time of year.

I can only begin to imagine what conditions might be like this spring and summer.