Maleny Weather

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