The weather of 5 January 2013

My friend Ian Fraser has mentioned the weather of 05/01/2013 in Duffy in his post about Bellenden Ker.  The way the weather played out at Carwoola on that day was quite interesting.

It was forecast to get to 39C today, which rates as stinking hot, with no particular forecast for rain.

It had just about got there at 4pm when clouds appeared and the temperature dropped a few degrees.  Checking the BoM radar showed a small storm approaching so modem unplugged.  A few spots of rain fell, but not enough to register.  The sun emerged again and temperature climbed again.

About 7pm I looked at the radar again and a large storm cell was about 20km South, which usually means it has passed by.  On this occasion I checked the looping facility and found it to be travelling North: ie incoming.  Modem disconnected again!  It provided 2.4mm of rain and dropped the outdoor temperature (red line) dramatically.
As shown it also raised the humidity (blue line) more than somewhat.

The situation indoors was considerably more pleasant.  We don't like to run our air-conditioner unnecessarily but yesterday it was 'necessary'.  In this graph the indoor temperature is the blue line.

Comments

Ian Fraser said…
Those are very interesting graphics - thanks for that. By chance we were down south-east of Tharwa for a 'do' yesterday evening, so not too far from you. The lightning display moving south along the Tinderries was spectacular. Driving home - around 2130 - the lightning was constant right across the north sky. We didn't drive through any rain, but the Tuggeranong streets were wet, and the official Canberra fall was 9mm; at Duffy the spider in the rain gauge didn't get her swimmers damp, and there was no discernible drop in temperature.
6 January 2013 at 12:19:00 GMT+11
Flabmeister said…
Thanks Ian. I must do something someday about comparing the readings at various official (ie BoM) gauges around Canberra. Of course with smallish storm cells such as yesterday it is very hit and miss who gets what.

Martin
6 January 2013 at 15:30:00 GMT+11
Denis Wilson said…
We have been out of range of any of the Canberra Queanbeyan storms.
But also free of the extremes of heat.
43 C predicted for Wollongong tomorrow.
Hope someone read their computer models wrong.
Time will tell.
I also was impressed with your neat temp and humidity graphs.
Denis
7 January 2013 at 10:50:00 GMT+11
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