Maleny Weather

March Summary 2009

The beginning of the month was hot and humid with little relief at night. Humidity was around 90 cent and temperatures in the high twenties and low thirties.  At times the Heat Exhaustion Index reached as high as 41ºC, dangerously high for the young and elderly. TC “Hamish” travelled down parallel to the coast at 17 kilometres an hour and by the 10^th while off Fraser Island became a tropical low. Fraser Island and low lying areas of coastline were evacuated as a precaution. Heavy seas and dangerous beach conditions prevailed along our coastline causing considerable erosion. The main casualty of the cyclone was a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship ‘Pacific Adventurer’. Heavy seas resulted in several of her upper deck containers full of ammonia nitrate being lost overboard. The containers pierced the side of the ship as they were washed overboard and released a considerable quantity of light and heavy oil into the sea. A big beach clean-up operation was necessary..

(This brings to mind the super tanker Torrrey Canyon disaster when she went aground in 1967 on the Seven Sisters reef, off Lands End, England. Over 100,000 tons of crude oil spilt into the sea, ending up on 100 miles of coastline on both sides of the English Channel)

 In the latter weeks of the month there was little change in the weather on the Range. A high of 1025hPa in the Tasman Sea and a deep low in the Coral Sea, for a short while became TC “Jaspin”and brought southerly maritime trade winds on to our shores. Days were dry and humid with temperatures in the mid twenties. It was not until Saturday that winds strengthened from an interaction between the high in the Tasman Sea and the ex-TC Jaspin and sunshine and showers, heavy at times, were the order of the day.

The month’s total rainfall was 224 mm, representing 69 mm below the 116 year March average. The all-time maximum was recorded in 1898 with 1289 mm, and the minimum in 1915 with 6.3 mm.