Australian Weather Going Crazy

The last few weeks, we Australians have been experiencing some strange weather.
It wasn't until yesterday that I stood up and took notice. It is November, and we should be having nice spring weather.

We are getting storms, dark looming hail storms. In one day here in Sydney we had a hot morning, a black afternoon and a freezing night.

We have bush fires raging in the blue mountains that are threatening houses and people.

The thing that got me though, was the snow-fall. Tasmania. Melbourne. Ballarat. These places and more are getting hit with snow. In some areas it is the first time snow has fallen there in 20 something years. We are 2 weeks away from Summer here in Aus, and our summers are world famous for being damned hot, am I right?

Every person I know in Sydney is asking "what the hell is going on with the weather?"


This story www.theaustralian.news.com.au... states that it's a cold front from Antarctica, but that's an easy answer to concoct.

Also, if any of you have been following the news, you would have heard of our government preparing to take a strong hold on global warming? It seems that it has finally become a HUGE issue over here, and the government is talking about installing machines that supposedly suck the carbon out of the air.

I want to know if any other Aussies have noticed stranger than normal weather patterns in their areas. I know I have.





[edit on 15-11-2006 by Unrealised]

Just yesterday, after a fairly warm day, it was stone cold. Hail and snow fell in areas around here, and pretty much no one could make sense of it. Between every song on the radio it seemed that some reporter was talking about it.

So yep, I noticed something weird as well yesterday.

And damn yes! Our summers can get hot!

Unrealised,

I live in northern NSW and we too have had unseasonably erratic weather.

We live in a sub-tropical zone and usually expect:

Robust August winds - they didn't arrive until mid Sept. The fireflies were 2 weeks early this year.

September electrical storms - they didn't arrive until October - Sepetember was very hot and dry.

We have had some 10 inches of rain over October and weeks of thunder storms right up until now.

We had stone fruit trees blossoming in June/July and our usually annual flowering plants continued to grow right through the winter this year.

There is something very erratic about our weather all right - it is as though the climate system has no "normal" template anymore and has hit a point of chaos that may be a preparation for a drmatic recalibration - pole shift???

It has been somewhat encouraging to hear that climate change has finally been accepted as a serious poltical issue in this country - but too little too late methinks.....

I'm in Melbourne and it's just as erratic. We're currently gripped by the worst drought for a THOUSAND years and then we have snow falling in the foothills of Melbourne. Compared to the foothills of the Rockies or the Alps, these are like large mounds. We've also got large icebergs floating near the coast of New Zealand. Crops have been ruined this year by both drought AND frost...in spring. There was even a farmer on a news story talking about cloud seeding. . . Wha's 'appenin'??

Damned straight. This weather is just insane. I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks so that I can gauge just how weird this weather is.

As for the whole "too little, too late" attitude towards taking control of global warming, I agree. I heard on JJJ (Australia wide, government owned radio station) yesterday that Australia is at the FOREFRONT of the war against global warming.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Originally posted by scorpiomoon

- pole shift???

Magnetic poles have virtually nothing at all to do with weather. North and south geographic poles are cold due to the tilt of the earth and the further distance from the sun. North and south geographic poles will stay that way wherever the magnetic pole is. We will still expect to get the "belts" of climate running from the geographic pole to the equator and back again no matter where the magnetic pole is, even if it decided to do a Phileas Fogg.

Look elsewhere for climate issues, but don't confuse magnetic pole-shift with climate-shift.

[edit on 15-11-2006 by d60944]

I live in Ottawa Canada, and honestly I think the weather here is deffinately a couple months behind. I know this because as a child, EVERY halloween has been SO cold(just one of those kiddy memories haha), I even remember there being snow on the ground on more than one year on my birthday in early November.
This year however, it has barely snowed twice, and when it did it was a very wet rainy snow that soon turned into just rain, it hasn't gotten cold at all that I've noticed.

I also remember this summer in July, there was an insane hailstorm, in JULY, I had never experienced weather like that in the middle of the summer. Anyone else in ottawa remember this?

Couldn't it just be that because of the rotation of earth, there isnt actually EXACTLY 24 hours in a day, and with all those extra seconds adding up, the weather just doesnt match our months anymore?

I haven't done much research, just something I've thought about.

The official time keepers around the world adjust their official clocks accordingly. No, it isn't an issue of seconds adding up in my opinion.

It's something natural, or at least we're led to believe that.

Some will say it's global warming, some will say H.A.A.R.P.

Maybe it's somewhere in between.

I just don't know. Now they've had a relatively large earthquake in Japan. The Earth is falling to pieces before our very eyes.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if HAARP had something to do with it...

It could be that the leaders of the world are in the last stages of testing.

H.A.A.R.P, if used correctly, would be the most devastating weapon ever unleashed on this planet.

Imagine waging a war with a weapon that nobody believes in?

Perfect.

Yep I live in Melbourne and the weather is seriously acting weird (even for Melbourne). Yesterday we had some really strong hail storms with gale force winds. Now we get storms in spring, but not hail and not an outside temperature of 7C. I remember back in August we had some 37C days. Its like the seasons are mixed up. Oh yeah and we are all still in drought.

Hmmm. Something about these stories sounds oddly familiar.

Anyone here seen The Day After Tomorrow?

btw - I live in Winnipeg, fondly referred to as Winterpeg by locals. But last spring my gardens started blooming in March, about 1 month ahead of time - and my strawberry plants are still bearing fruit, more than 1 month past when they should be.


.

Yeah this weather is really getting me pi**ed!

On Wednesday i had to ride home from school on my bmx whilst i got hailed on, and even worse my brake cable snapped and i almost got ran over by a car!!

I hope it gets warmer soon. The weather man said it will be 30 on Monday!! Hoorah!

Okay - I'm Australian - Melbourne born, resided in Sydney for a decade and moved back to Melbourne. I used to spend a lot of time outdoors playing sport and had to study the weather quite a bit accordingly. The weather lately as been no more 'crazy' than it usuallu is for South-East Australia. We learned in high school that the continental air mass is hot and dry which interacts with the air mass over the Southern Ocean - which is cold and wet. They meet right over Victoria/Bass Strait which results in often unpredictable weather for Melbourne. Perhaps it has something to do with that?

Now for some reminiscing (did I spell that right?). I can remember:
- my mum telling me that the summers in Melbourne are nowere near as hot as they were when she was a girl growing up in the late 50's and sixties.
- Christams Day always being sultry or even cold and wet
- Boxing Day at the MCG Test Match always being rain effected (well everytime I've gone, anyway)
- Snow falling during my end of year exams at the University of Melbourne in 1986. It also snowed in the Dandenongs. What happened yesterday is nothing new.
- Playing footy down at Somerville in hail and the same day having snow fall at Waverly Park in a Richmond vs Geelong AFL (VFL then) match. This was in 1983!
- moving to Sydney inJanuary 1989 and experiencing 6 MONTHS of non-stop rain! It was called "The Big Wet" and there was a story on it The Bulletin. At one point there was an area under water in South-West QLD, North west NSW, South East NT and North East SA which was equivalent to the COMBINED areas of Great Britain, France AND Germany! Imagine that! If it happened in Eurpoe there would be devestation. It happened here and no one gave a stuff!
- Going to Uni in Wollongong in 1990 and experiencing 3 months of (again!) non-stop rain.

Australia is a typically hot, dry place. But it also has extreme weather occasionally. What makes it so memorable is that it is so rare. The weather here is usually 'fine'. I have some friends who moved to the USA (Virginia Beach) and they reckon you haven't seen extreme weather until you go there.

(Shrug)

Anyhoo, to cap it all off I'd like to offer you some poetic words written many years ago about Australia:

"I love a sunburnt country,
Of droughts and flooding rains...."

Says it all really...

Oh - and the worst drought in 1000 years? Please.... white men have only been here for just over 200 years and they didn't keep records for all that time. How on earth can anyone say "this is the worst drought for 1000 years"? It's an unverifiable claim and therefore unscientific. Pure speculation.

Answerman

Oh - and the worst drought in 1000 years? Please.... white men have only been here for just over 200 years and they didn't keep records for all that time. How on earth can anyone say "this is the worst drought for 1000 years"? It's an unverifiable claim and therefore unscientific. Pure speculation.

There are a number of ways to calculate weather trends without human observation.

In fact, observation is probably the least accurate.

My guess is they used clay samples or tree rings.

FYI...

answerman, you DO live in Melbourne.

In Sydney, Melbourne has the reputation for being wet and soggy.

I really started this thread from my own experiences with the weather here in Sydney. Then I learned that all over the country the weather is playing up.

Is it really a coincidence that ALL the news networks are talking about the 'crazy' weather this country is having lately?

C'mon mate, you have to give me and the rest of us THAT one.

You can't tell us that rain, hail and shine all in one day is normal. Put snow and fire on top of that and you have a VERY unstable weather system.

Let's face it: the weather is playing tricks.

Yesterday, here in Brisbane, it was about 32 degrees in the morning, which is too hot for me, then in the afternoon, it violently stormed for about 30 minutes, with hail, thus considerably cooling the temperature.

Last night, it was hot again, until about 4 in the morning where I actually woke up cold.

Today, is a mild 22 degrees or so, and has been all day long.

As far back as I can remember, and I have lived in Queensland virtually my whole life, it has never been a mild 22 in mid-November.

This erratic weather pattern is coinciding with Al Gore visiting Australia at the moment to talk about Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.....coincidence?

Something is definately going on....

Unbelieveable isnt it.

The Drought, the snow, the hail, the heat.. its all over the place.
I personally think the ice burgs appearing near NZ is related..

that isnt something normal.. whats happening down on the southernpole that large chucnks of ice are now floating up towards NZ and Aussie?

Why are we having such strange wether..

Also,
now... I know the weather man isnt always right..

but I always take notice of the weather as Its a distant ride to work every day.. and for this past month ive notcied storms, and rain forecasted for the next day..
yet it never appears...

not once, not twice.. but i think 5 times now ive viewed him doing the weather, i can see the storm approaching in the sat photos.. yet its like it stops...
it halts and hovers.


IE yesterday storms were predicted all day..
nothing, not a drop..
its only until tonight that some clouds are appearing.

Weathers rapidly changing this year..

I'm not from Australia, but isn't this the time of the year the monsoons hit Kakadu?

In North America - violent storms rip through British Cloumbia; tornadoes destroy much, kill several people in southern USA.

More?

Seems the planet is in a bit of a frenzy.