August 2008 Statisitcs

Driest Month for 17 Years

Maleny Weather Station

August 2008 Statistics

August in Maleny	2008	2007
Rainfall	3.2 mm	533.6 mm
Rain Days	2 days	8 days
Maximum 24 hr rain	2.8 mm	176.0 mm
Heaviest Rate of Fall	15.4 mm/h	57.1 mm/hour
Thunder heard	1	1
Evapotranspiration	85.9 mm	n/a
Relative Humidity (9am)	63%	73%
Relative Humidity (3.pm)	47%	55%
Lowest Min. Temperature	3.6ºC	5.0ºC
Highest Min. Temperature	14.4ºC	13.4ºC
Lowest Max. Temperature	14.6ºC	13.5ºC
Highest Max. Temperature	24.4ºC	26.0ºC
Days under 10ºC	24 days	11 days
Bright Sunshine Hours	216.hours	179 hours
Dom. Wind Direction	SW	SSE
MWS internet usage Hits	67,295	97,496
MWS internet usage Visits	3,249	3,536

Notes

The Mean Maximum Temperature was18.9ºC, and Mean Minimum was 7.7ºC’

With three spells of cold weather it is not surprising that overall temperature was down by nearly two degrees from the norm. With lack of cloud, overnight temperatures were lower and Sunshine Hours were both higher than average.

Do you remember August last year? We had 533 mm of rain when a large high pressure system interacted with a complex East Coast low off Fraser Island. This was the highest Maleny rainfall ever recorded in August since 1893. However, this year the August synoptic weather pattern was somewhat different, as we have had the lowest August rainfall since 1991, with a precipitation of only 3.2 mm. August 1991 was Maleny’s fourth completely ‘dry’ month in 115 years. So far this year we have recorded rainfall of 1,714 mm, well above the eight month average of 1349 mm.

At the end of the month soil moisture registered an index of 200 at a depth of 20 cm and shallow rooted plants will become stressed without irrigation. Mean temperature for the month is 12.4 degrees, representing 2 degrees below the norm. August Bright Sunshine shone on the Hinterland for 209 hours, compared with 179 hours over the same period last year.

Two weeks ago the blossom was out and spring flowers were in full bloom; and it looked as if spring started a little earlier than usual.