Maleny Weather

This was the week when everyone had a taste – literally – of what is said to have been one of the worst dust storms for over 70 years. It all started on Monday 21^st when an intensive low of 960hPa developed in The Bight. A cold surface trough associated with this system moved across Victoria and into NSW and SE Queensland.  Overhead instability of the atmosphere was intensified by troughs in a NW cloudband. On Wednesday we had hot gale force winds whipping up red top soil from out west, including silt possibly from Lake Eyre, and then depositing some 75,000 tonnes an hour of dust along the east coast. Sydney airport closed early in the day and planes diverted to Brisbane. On the Blackall ranges the day started with a slight haze.  At 1.15 pm winds backed to SSW and widespread dust moved in dramatically dropping visibility to 300m. The wide spread  dust cleared the region by the following afternoon and made Thursday a day of mopping-up grit that had penetrated everywhere. Vehicles needed cleaning, also air conditioner filters. Washing machines were kept busy.  

Pollution count was the highest on record with 15,000 micrograms per cubic metre, whereas the norm is 20 micrograms. A normal bush fire records about 500 micrograms a cubic metre.

Similar weather phenomena occurred again on Saturday evening 26^{th. .}At 9.00pm wind backed to southwest bringing in once again widespread dust to the region. On this occasion the dust was less dense due to lighter winds and less noticeable during hours of darkness. 

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The media headlines today bring to mind the Melbourne Dust Storm on 8^th February 1983. This was when south-eastern Australia was coming out of one of the worst droughts since European settlement leaving behind very sparse vegetation cover and a great deal of dry exposed red dust in the Mallee region. Strong north-westerly winds moving ahead of a cold front whipped up the dust into a fast moving wall creating a dramatic sight as it towered above the Melbourne skyline.

In 1852 another notable dust storm occurred in the Melbourne area on Sunday 19^th December when The Tmes in London reported ‘a man riding his horse on the outskirts of Melbourne was unable to see the ears of his horse due to the streaming volume of hot, stinging dust’.

Catherine Tucker

A few weeks ago I came across an article by Catherine Tucker describing her early life in Maleny and I quote a few extracts:-

“I was nearly four years of age when my father in 1890 took up a 160 acre selection on the Range at Maleny. We were living in Brisbane; my older sister had died of diphtheria on her sixth birthday. I left Brisbane with my mother, father and brother George and we took the train to Landsborough as the railway line from Caboolture had been recently opened.

We spent a few days at Mt. Mellum hotel waiting for a horse drawn dray that was arranged to meet us and never arrived. As father was the only one who knew anything about horses it was mother’s idea that we should start walking; not knowing what she was taking on. The road was little more than a track and took one steeply and directly over Bald Knob. We walked on the side of the road to escape the deep and muddy holes that never dried up because of the dense canopy of tree tops. We often got caught up in the ‘bush lawyer’ canes that left their mark on skin and clothes. There was no fresh water other than from a spring on a bank above the roadside, about half way up from Landsborough.

We arrived at our new home at dusk. We had taken all day to travel on foot the thirteen miles from Landsborough to Maleny We found comfort in seeing our familiar furniture which had been sent by train to Landsborough and transported up the Range by bullock wagon and positioned by father before he left for Brisbane to collect us.

The cabin was built of split hardwood slabs and lined with hessian to keep out the wind.  We had two bedrooms, a kitchen-dining room, and a verandah. There was also a recess with flooring of huge flat water-washed stones on which stood my mother’s pride and joy – a wood burning stove.

Our rain-water tank was unusual but very efficient, it never leaked and water drawn from it was always cool. It held about thousand gallons, square in shape like a ship’s tank and constructed of wide wooden boards lined with zinc sheeting.

Condensed milk took the place of fresh milk. But later my father decided to buy a house cow. This meant a ride to Kennilworth and a slow journey home with “Cherry” and she was the first cow to be kept at Maleny in an area that was to become known as a ‘dairyman’s paradise’, with pastures carrying over 16,000 cows.

On laundry days clothes were taken down to the creek. A fireplace was built on flat stones at the water’s edge large enough to hold two kerosene tins in which the clothes were boiled. After rinsing the men would carry the wet clothes in baskets back to the homestead for hanging on to the clothes line to dry.

Our larder had to be replenished several times a year. The supplies were always ordered in bulk and brought up from Landsborough by bullock team to be off loaded at the roadside nearest our homestead. Our father would use the horse drawn sled to carry it the rest of the way to the house. As children we were always excited looked forward to finding a bag of lollies, a customary gift from the grocer.

What’s round and bad-tempered?                —————     A vicious circle.

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The Range weather has been influenced by a large slow moving high in the Coral Sea bringing stable conditions and rising temperatures as winds backed to the northwest. Relative humidity around fifty per cent with strong winds have increased the risk of fire danger. Soil moisture content is now in the ‘very dry’ range.

The latest 30-day SOI value is −1, while the monthly value for August was −5.0. The SOI is neutral and does not show an El Niño trend simular to episodes of drought years of 1900, 1902 and 1957. Persistent SOI monthly values in excess of minus 7 are required for an El Niño event to be

 Glider and hang-glider pilots are heading to Burketown in Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria this week, seeking to experience one of the world’s rarest natural wonders.

For the past 20 years they have been making the annual trek to Burketown to fly on the Morning Glory cloud which appears every spring.

The cloud is a meteorological phenomenon featuring enormous waves of cloud, which can roll for hundreds of kilometres in length.

Glider pilots say flying the Morning Glory is exhilarating. Flying on the Morning Glory cloud is probably one of the most exciting and extraordinary experiences you could actually ever do in a glider. It can be awesome.  The cloud is beautiful and great fun to ride.

A surface frontal system moved through the Ranges on Monday afternoon bringing the prospect of some rain as it interacted with a north-west cloudband. The rain came in a thunderstorm, with some heavy falls measuring as much as 147 mm per hour. Total rainfall resulting from the thunderstorm was 28.8 mm. Fine weather prevailed for the remainder of the week with long hours of sunshine. A week of high fire danger brought on by tinder dry undergrowth, strong winds, 26 mm of evapotranspiration, solar radiation of over 1000 watts per m² , low humidity and 52 hours of bright sunshine. These were all a recipe for disaster, averted only by the skill and expertise of our local rural fire-fighters.  Extensive burn-back was in full operation mainly during late afternoons. A temperature inversion, combined with lack of overnight wind, prevented dispersal of smoke until the following day.

Please go to “This Month” page for more data

Please go to “This Month” page for more data

 Surface and upper level troughs brought some atmospheric instabilityto the hinterland with a potential for some good falls of rain. We certainly needed rain for gardens and paddocks, as well as near dry water tanks. Unfortunately, we received only the tail-end of the band of rain heading our way and so falls were not as heavy as expected. This differs from a similar synoptic pattern in the same week last year when over 100 mm of rain fell in 24 hours.

Saturday afternoon’s radar showed a small isolated cell of a thunderstorm over Witta, where most of the thundery rain fell. The week’s day and night temperatures were about average for this time of year.

The BOM national spring outlook for rain in the period September to November shows odds favouring a drier than normal season across south-east Queensland.

August Summary

2009

Do you remember our August weather two years ago? We had 533 mm of rain when a high pressure system interacted with a complex East Coast Low off Fraser Island. This was the highest Maleny rainfall ever recorded in August since 1891. We have had another record August this year with a mini-heatwave in the last two weeks of winter..  A strong ridge of high pressure up the east coast brought hot NW winds on to the Blackall Ranges and sent temperatures soaring to the low thirties. Our temperature peaked at 31.6ºC on Monday 24^th at 3.00 pm. This is the maximum August temperature ever officially recorded at Maleny.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is predicting a warmer-than-average spring, and record temperatures in parts of the country over recent days certainly back that forecast.

With the official start of the spring season on Tuesday, areas in the south-east of the country have sweltered – Brisbane recorded a winter maximum of 35.4 degrees Celsius on Monday and the NSW temperature peaked at 37.8 degrees at Mungindi on Tuesday 25th. Here at Maleny we also peaked on Monday with an all- time winter record of 31.6ºC.

The bureau’s seasonal outlook says the warmer-than-average temperatures are the result of recent warm conditions in both the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Climate meteorologist Grant Beard from the BOM’s National Climate Centre says the August temperatures are more typical of early spring than winter.

Is it time we consider changing the names and times of our Seasons?

Perhaps Dr. Tim Entwisle, Executive Director of Botanical Gardens Trust, Sydney has a good point with his idea of disbanding  ‘European’ seasons in favour of seasonal dates more suited to Australian climes. He suggests we have a spring of two months in August and September, a pre-summer season of two months in October and November, followed by a ‘real’ long summer from December to March. April and May would be the autumn months and winter in June and July. It is possible this could suit the climate of south-east Queensland. Other regions would need to arrange their seasons to suit there own local climate