Two myths: roadworks and cold
We have come back up to Canberra for a few days. In fact both myths were proved to be facts as will be revealed below.
There has been a fair amount of discussion in weather circles about a series of cold fronts coming across SE Australia and this led me to consult Meteye regarding the weather at Nimmitabel on 11 July (aiming for 1300 hrs as approximately when we'd come by). That forecast said it would be 8oC which was ugly.
Knowing that made it difficult to have our usual bet on what the temperature would be. Instead we agreed that we'd assess whether the temperature would be above or below the forecast. Bets had to be made before getting on to Imlay Road. As it was 12oC, and rising, at Mallacoota by 0700 we agreed that we both thought it would be above 8oC at Nimmitabel.
I decided to used the NSW Government "Live Traffic" app. on my phone to assess the road works situation. Here is the result:
No road works! Woo hoo.
Of course what I should have done was also check the equivalent site for Victoria. Not only was the interference with traffic evident on the Highway just North of Genoa but the delay was inordinate. When we arrived at the scene of the crime it was 10 minutes!
I suppose one should be grateful for the timer. However we could see no reason for such a long delay: in the time we sat there one truck emerged from the work. It seemed that the cycle was something like 90 seconds open Southbound; 90 seconds open Northbound; 7 minutes closed in both directions. Idiots.
As we toddled along Imlay Road the temperature stayed at about 13oC but it was very windy so our fuel consumption stayed at about 10.8 l/100 km. As we approached Bombala it was interesting to see that the bridgework on the Delegate Rd was beginning to take shape: that road has been closed, with no signs of progress, for about 4 months.
The temperature at Bombala was still around 11oC. However getting towards the junction 16km South of Nimmitabel it had dropped to 10oC and got rid of the other 2 o before we got to town. The thermometer read 8oC as we went past the lolly shop! I suspect it was actually 8.4999oC, but what's a little rounding?
No snow was visible as the Main Range was covered in cloud. A bizarre sight was the rolled 4WD , which we first noticed 4 weeks ago and was still upside down beside the road, with contents strewn beside it. Why hasn't someone cleaned it up?
Stone the crows. Just West of Nimmitabel there were some more horny sons of toil with roadworks: as far as we could see all the work was on the side road but the lazy sods had parked a truck on the Highway. Fortunately it only went for 2-3 minutes.
No more dramas on the road. Once we got to Cooma we stopped driving into the wind so the fuel consumption dropped dramatically, getting to 10.1l/100 km by the time we got to the apartment. That meant we were using about 8.6 l/100 km from Cooma onwards.
It was quite cold in Canberra: although the temperature was still around 10oC there was a nasty wind. It is Winter, so the ACT has set up a small skating rink in front of the Assembly Building. Being cheap they use a low tech Zamboni!
About 1830 I went to Sammy's Kitchen to pick up some takeaway. The wind was howling and I suspect the apparent temperature was around zero.
There has been a fair amount of discussion in weather circles about a series of cold fronts coming across SE Australia and this led me to consult Meteye regarding the weather at Nimmitabel on 11 July (aiming for 1300 hrs as approximately when we'd come by). That forecast said it would be 8oC which was ugly.
Knowing that made it difficult to have our usual bet on what the temperature would be. Instead we agreed that we'd assess whether the temperature would be above or below the forecast. Bets had to be made before getting on to Imlay Road. As it was 12oC, and rising, at Mallacoota by 0700 we agreed that we both thought it would be above 8oC at Nimmitabel.
I decided to used the NSW Government "Live Traffic" app. on my phone to assess the road works situation. Here is the result:
Of course what I should have done was also check the equivalent site for Victoria. Not only was the interference with traffic evident on the Highway just North of Genoa but the delay was inordinate. When we arrived at the scene of the crime it was 10 minutes!
As we toddled along Imlay Road the temperature stayed at about 13oC but it was very windy so our fuel consumption stayed at about 10.8 l/100 km. As we approached Bombala it was interesting to see that the bridgework on the Delegate Rd was beginning to take shape: that road has been closed, with no signs of progress, for about 4 months.
No snow was visible as the Main Range was covered in cloud. A bizarre sight was the rolled 4WD , which we first noticed 4 weeks ago and was still upside down beside the road, with contents strewn beside it. Why hasn't someone cleaned it up?
Stone the crows. Just West of Nimmitabel there were some more horny sons of toil with roadworks: as far as we could see all the work was on the side road but the lazy sods had parked a truck on the Highway. Fortunately it only went for 2-3 minutes.
It was quite cold in Canberra: although the temperature was still around 10oC there was a nasty wind. It is Winter, so the ACT has set up a small skating rink in front of the Assembly Building. Being cheap they use a low tech Zamboni!
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