The north-easterly winds, strong at times, over the Blackall Ranges came from a combination of a high near New Zealand and a weak monsoon trough over northern Australia.

Thunderstorm activity triggered off a week of wet weather. The rain over Christmas came from upper level troughs, enhanced by the remnants of ex-TC Laurence which was carried on a jet stream across the continent. Rainfall for the week was 61mm, bringing the total for the month to 113mm and it is good to see the joy expressed by rural property owners with replenished tanks after experiencing six ‘dry’ months. Paddocks and gardens are looking refreshed and the Obi-Obi flowing once again.

Please go to “Current Weather” &“This Month” pages for more data

More rainfall is expected in north-east NSW as remnants of Cyclone Laurence move east.

More than half of the Italian City of Venice is flooded as water levels rise to their highest this year.

Much of Europe continues to face severe transport upheaval as a cold snap sweeps the continent. More than 80 people have died across Europe, including at least 42 in Poland and another 27 in Ukraine who have frozen to death. Another 13 people died in car accidents in Austria, Finland and Germany, where temperatures dropped well below zero. Air, rail and road transport has been severely disrupted across northern Europe and more snow is expected. But after three days of cancelled services, Eurostar trains began running between Brussels, Paris and London. The backlog of thousands of stranded travellers was expected to take several days to clear. Frankfurt airport, Europe’s third largest, re-opened on Tuesday morning after closing on Monday because of icy conditions. In France, Belgium and the Netherlands, airport operators cleared runways after thick snowfall caused major disruption to flight patterns.

The “Next Generation Forecast and Warning System” is underpinned by a set of forecast weather element grids, quality controlled by forecasters, for time intervals out to 7 days ahead.  Each weather element, for each time, is stored in the Australian Digital Forecast Database on a high-resolution 6 kilometre by 6 kilometre square grid and maps are generated for display in the new Forecast Explorer web interface. The first state to use this system is Victoria’, where the Bureau has been operating and evaluating a demonstration weather forecasting system since October 2008. The government, in its 2009/10 budget has announced funding of $30.5 million over five years to roll this revolutionary system out across all states in Australia.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Kay and Patrick would like to express their thanks to all our sponsors and visitors to the site during 2009, and especially those who have made known to us their interest and encouragement.

It has been a week with temperatures in the high twenties which is one degree above the norm for the month of December. Dry northerly winds have persisted throughout the week with deep cracks appearing in the dry ground, and rain tanks becoming somewhat depleted. However, with the approach of a thunderstorm on Saturday winds back southerly at 4.15pm and then from 5.00 to 8.00pm we heard the sound of rain on the roof that brought much pleasure to the ears of many. The heaviest ‘rate of rain fall’ was at 5.30pm with 87mm per hour. Thunderstorm activity and light rain continued throughout the day on Sunday.

Please go to “Current Weather” &“This Month” pages for more data

More than 2,000 passengers have been rescued after spending hours trapped in the undersea Channel Tunnel linking France and Britain after four trains broke down due to poor weather conditions.

Angry travellers said they had been left with no power, air conditioning, food or water.

Rail operator Eurostar said the breakdowns had resulted from technical problems caused by the temperature difference inside the tunnel and freezing conditions outside.

“It is snowing in northern France, it’s very cold, conditions are very bad,” a spokesman for Eurostar, operated by French rail operator SNCF, its Belgian counterpart SNCB and British government-owned LCR, said.