As most of you will have already noticed … it’s ffffffffffreezing at the moment, even in places where it should know better!
As the great grey nomad convoy slowly wends its way northward, the question on everybody’s lips is … how much further do I have to go before I can kiss goodbye to the hot water bottle?
Most of outback Queensland has woken it seems to yet another chilly a winter morning, with some centres more than 10 degrees Celsius below the May average.
At 6am it was zero at Blackall, two degrees at Longreach, and four at Mount Isa. Blimey!
And the weather bureau says frost is likely for several parts of the interior and even into the north-west around Urandangi.
Forecaster Tony Auden told the ABC the cooler temperatures were due to drier winds and clear skies.
“We’ve seen temperatures well below average this morning – anything up to 13 degrees below average so far at 3am,” he said.”The coldest in terms of the average temperatures was 3.2 degrees so far at Julia Creek and they might even be nudging a record in terms of May, so we’ll have to see what happens there in the next couple of hours … I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a fair bit of frost.”
Too right, Tony. Many of our forum members are already reporting a cleansing coating of the cold stuff. It’s all very pretty to look at but it’s not quite the way it was advertised in the great grey nomad ‘you’ll-never-have-to-be-cold-again’ brochure, is it?
And for those of you who have yet to flee the southern winter – or who have chosen not to – things aren’t an awful lot brighter. Indeed, it is widely expected that Sydney will record its coldest May in 41 years.
The Weather Channel says that while the temperature has peaked at just 14.2C in the CBD on some days this week, the driving wind has made it feel more like 9C or 10C.
So far this month Sydney’s minimum temperatures have averaged just 10.7°C which is below the long term average of 11.5°C and the lowest in May since 1970.
However, the recent cold spell does not indicate an upcoming severe winter.
“Despite the cold May most seasonal forecasts predict a warmer than normal winter over most of southern Australia,” Weather Channel meteorologist, Tom Saunders told the Daily Telegraph. “This is due to favourable sea surface temperatures surrounding the country. Historical records also show little relationship between autumn and winter temperatures.”
But what about the north, Tom? What about the north?
Okay ladies and gents, stoke up the campfire, keep those slippers handy, and roll out the hot toddies. It’s going to be a tough winter in our tropical paradise … but hey, somebody’s got to do it!
