[Aus Carl]

Hello All, This is my first time posting here. I'am from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I live in Eltham Nth which is about 35KM northeast of the Melbourne CBD. I have had a lifelong interest in weather (among other natural sciences such as seismology & volcanology & i also enjoy aviation). I often listen to cisnfm from Edmonton, Alberta online as i'am right into country music. I enjoy the news reports i hear there as well as the brutally cold winter temperatures you experience there in some parts.I'am very interested to learn about Canadian weather and how the weather forms & then flows southwards over continantal US as well as general averages & extremes (rainfall & temperature).
It's certainly winter here now and tommorows sunrise/set times will be 7.36AM & 5.09PM It's been rather rainy today with a fresh NW wind and mild also with a max of 14.7C after a very warm start of 14C. But that will all change as of tonight with a SW front bringing colder weather & frosts early next week. Then a Sub Antartic cold front is due by mid week with a really cold burst of wind & showers with a good dump of snow in the alpine areas.
Well i'll be doing my best to keep tabs on Canadian weather but if you have any questions on Victorian/Melbourne weather id sure do my best to answer them for you.
To the mods, I hope i have posted in the right place but place but please move it& tell me if i haven't.
Current time here is 11.09PM and i think i'll take the dog for a quick run around the block before retiring for the night.

[Aus Carl]

I guess i should say that although i did first sign up to Canadian Weather in 2006 i wasn't able to start posting/contributing due to a serious illness. But all is fine now so i hope to be able to learn & share a lot of weather information with you all.

[cumulusgranite]

A welcome to you Aus Carl.

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To the mods, I hope i have posted in the right place but place but please move it& tell me if i haven't.

No problem.


I am certainly happy to hear your illness is not causing problems now.

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among other natural sciences such as seismology & volcanology & i also enjoy aviation.

I also share these interests.

I am certainly looking forward to your posts.

[Aus Carl]

Hello All, Well i guess this is my first post in a little while. It sure has been a cold week here for us in Victoria (although probably laughable by Canadian winter standards) lol. Last tuesday some Victorian centres struggled to get above 0C for the maximum while most others didn't get far above 5C.But the airmass did warm a little very late in the day and as a result (no doubt aided by the heat island effect Melbourne city made it briefly to 10.3C just after dark.The cold burst was caused by a number of days of heavy morning frosts & low daytime temperatures across northern Victoria & southern NSW.A trough moving in from the west produced cloud in the early am hours tuesday along with freshening NW winds which spread the cold air right across the state.
In fact until today it hasn't been above 12C for the maximum all week & that hasn't happened in Melbourne since 1996.But it looks like we'll be back to near normal july temperatures now with maximums around 13C with city minimums around 5C.Although you can always knock of between 3-5 degrees for the minimums in my area as i live around 35 kilometres from Melbourne city on the northeastern outskirts well away from the heat island effect.We have been doing rather well rainfall wise also as we have just recently seen the drought of the past 13 years ease it's grip on southeastern Australia.Our average water storage levels are still very low at around 35.3% last thursday but are far better than the 24.5% for the same time last year.Melbourne never has been a wet city averaging around 658mm per year but over recent years we have been getting by on around 450mm on average.However i think there is a good chance we'll get past 600mm this year.I record my own rainfall and copped 71.6mm for june which is well above the average 58mm for the month giving me 373.3mm for the year so far.
I have a friend who lives in western Arkansas and he often talks of Canadian fronts.I presume these are really Arctic fronts.Do you have many of these fronts spreading cold air across Canada during your summer?Also what are the hottest & coldest parts of Canada during summer? Also what are the wettest, driest & snowiest parts of Canada?
The sunrise/set times for tommorow will be sunrise 7.34AM sunset 5.16pm now that we are past the solstice.
Well i'am looking foreward to learning more about Canadian weather & also sharing some Melbourne/Victorian weather with you also.

[cumulusgranite]

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Do you have many of these fronts spreading cold air across Canada during your summer?Also what are the hottest & coldest parts of Canada during summer? Also what are the wettest, driest & snowiest parts of Canada?

This is a big country so we tend to have extremes on both ends of the scale.

Yup, at times we do have these summer cold air 'outbreaks'. This can cause havoc with other weather systems.

One of the summer scenarios here is warm humid air from the Gulf of Mexico moving North over the mid west United States and Southern Ontario area of Canada.

A cold front will move down from the North and cause very unstable air masses.
Severe thunder storms and also tornadoes can and do get triggered.
Some of them are quite severe.

The same sort of weather system st time come together over the Prairie Provinces of Canada and cause some chaotic weather.

LOL, unofficially I guess the hottest places 'in the summer' are the Prairies and also the Southern Ontario area can get a bit 'toasty'
Although it is certainly not etched in stone, other areas at times can share hot weather.

The coldest place are the Yukon, Northwest Territories. Some parts of the Prairies also can get a wee bit chilly.
Also the Northern area of Nunavut has no problem making ice cubes in the winter months

Just a quick search resulted in;

Mayo, Yukon -62.2°C Feb 3, 1947

Norman Wells, NWT -54.4°C Feb 4, 1947

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan -56.7°C Feb 1, 1893

Eureka, Nunavut -55.3°C Feb 15, 1979

As for hot weather the Prairies can also jump into that league along with the west coast and Ontario

Lillooet and Lytton, BC 44.4°C July 16 & 17, 1941

Regina, Saskatchewan 43.3°C July 5, 1937

Atikokan, Ontario 42.2°C July 11 & 12, 1936


Of course these temps are recorded highs but it sort of gives general overview.

Here on the coast we at times have high temps but the summers are usually tempered because of the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean.

The wettest place has to be the West Coast (British Columbia).
Here in the Maritime Provence's would come in second, but I don't think by near the same degree as the West Coast.

The snowiest area would be the mountain range area of British Columbia.
Some of these areas can have > 1000cm annually.

The driest place would be the North.
The precip level above the tree line in the Arctic circle area is quite sparse.
Also at times there have been very dry summers on the Prairies much to the regret of the farmers.

However, all this being said, the area of this country is so large it is difficult to definitively assign a particular type of weather to a particular area, its like trying to nail jelly to a wall.
Things here can turn on a dime...

LOL, we have an old saying here," If you don't like the weather, don't worry, wait 5 minutes and it will change".

I have the greatest admiration for the Mets here in Canada trying to forecast and keep stats on all this.



By the way, a quick question.

How was your wild fire season?

The last couple of years we've seen news and video reports of the wild fire severity.
This year they did not seem to report as much and I was wondering if there were actually less fires or the Media just did not report them here.

[kosh]

If you like seeing bizarre weather phenomenon in Canada, keep an eye on Lytton, BC during the summer months. It regularly sees extreme heat more akin to interior California. Indeed they have "flora" growing in the area more expected to be seen in a Mediterranean or semi-desert climate.

[Aus Carl]

Hello All, Yes the summer of 2008/9 was a really bad one for extremes of dryness & also heat
Melbourne had 4 consecutive days above 43C in late january culminating in one day of 45.1C.But on february 7th all hell broke loose.A howling & searingly hot NW gale ahead of a dry SW change caused a number of fires to start.In all 179 people perished with 41 fatalities occuring in Nillumbik Shire where i live.The fires came to within 10 kilometres of home and we could see the hills on fire from my girlfriends place in adjacent Diamond Creek.Many parts of Victoria set all time maximum temperature records. Melbourne city hit 46.4C while Avalon (an outher southwestern suburb) hit 47.9C.The state high for that day was 48.8C but there were many unofficial recordings that day of 51C.
Yes thankfully last summer 2009/10 was much more mundane & cooler also.In fact Melbourne only managed one day above 40C for the summer on january 12th when it it 43,6C.

[cumulusgranite]

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In all 179 people perished with 41 fatalities occuring in Nillumbik Shire where i live.

Sheesh, I did not realize there there were that many fatalities.

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The fires came to within 10 kilometres of home and we could see the hills on fire from my girlfriends place in adjacent Diamond Creek.

That must have been scary.

Reason I say this, many years ago I worked on a forest fire crew for summer seasons and have seen these wild fires or forest fire first hand.
I know how very very scary they can be.

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In fact Melbourne only managed one day above 40C for the summer on january 12th when it it 43,6C.

LOL, only one day above 40°. That is quite awesome, at least from the point of view here.

[Aus Carl]

Hello all, Well another cold winter week here with maximums for the most part struggling to reach 13C with minimums around 5C (weekly average in Melbourne).Have had some very good rainfall in the eastern part of Victoria over the past week with some totals going past 100mm.Sadly this has come at the cost of natural snow cover in the alps.But this will be made up this week with another series of fronts on the way.Anyway i though you'd like to see a chart of Melbourne's temperature averages & extremes.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

av/min 14.3 14.3 13.0 10.6 08.5 06.7 05.7 06.5 07.7 09.0 11.0 12.7
av/max 25.8 25.8 23.8 20.2 16.5 13.9 13.3 14.8 17.1 19.5 21.9 24.1

l/min 05.6 04.5 02.8 01.6 -01.2 -02.2 -02.8 -02.1 -00.6 00.1 02.4 02.4
h/min 30.6 30.5 28.3 24.7 18.6 17.4 16.6 16.6 21.4 24.1 26.2 28.3
l/max 14.6 14.7 12.0 08.9 08.3 05.3 04.4 06.7 08.3 09.0 11.0 10.3
h/max 45.6 46.4 41.7 34.9 28.7 22.4 23.1 26.5 31.4 36.9 40.9 43.7

These figures are based entirely in the Melbourne CBD and temperatures do vary widely from these throughout the suburbs.

[Aus Carl]

Whoops, appologies, Not sure what happened here. I typed the figures of from a sheet that i had.Was fine when i sent so i will repair it.

[cumulusgranite]

Your December max is interesting.

We are so use to winter here in December.
I can't imaging cooking a Christmas turkey then going to the beach for a swim.
However, I would certainly be prepared to give it a try.

Just a quick check on 2009 Dec 31st temps. (Max. -7.1°C, Min -15.5°C, Mean -11.3°C)

Yup, considering those temps I would have no problem at all with a with being in the south during winter.

[Aus Carl]

Hello all, Appologies for my long delay in writing. It's been a very cold winter in Melbourne in fact the coldest in quite some years.More importantly it has been the wettest since 1995.Given that we are just coming out of a 13 year long drought.
But the bigger news is that parts of central western Victoria are experiencing major flooding with several towns near on innundated with evacuations in place.But the main focus now is on the north east parts of the state where huge rain totals (200mm or more) are likely overnight.To add to that it is all being caused by a broadscale low pressure system with massive tropical moisture infeed.This means that the NE parts of the state will have to contend with major snow melt issues also.
Only 20-30mm here in Melbourne though but strangely after a friday maximum of 14C the temperature actually rose overnight to 17C by midnight where it remained steady all night before hitting 19C under rain by mid morning.
Conditions should ease over the next few days before another low develops (feeding of the same moisture stream left behind from this event) later next week.Looks like we could get another soaking then.
In a few weeks time i'll be heading off to Denilliquin in southern NSW fr the annual ute muster with friends as we do each year.Canadian country/folk singer Corb Lund will be performing this year www.deniutemuster.com.au. We'll leave on the night of september 28th a few days early as we do each year and the muster will be held on friday 1st and saturday 2nd of october.
But Denilliquin is located in the southern plains of NSW which are regarded as among the flattest on earth & any heavy rain there could potentially sit around for a very long time.A few weeks after that on october 30th i will be getting married to my beautiful bride to be Nayana.So all is going well for me in the rain soaked state of Victoria.