From heat, back to snow, fire danger and storm warnings – spring weather has given the country some serious whiplash. What's behind it?
From heat back to snow, fire danger and storm warnings — spring weather has given the country some serious whiplash. In the space of 24 hours last weekend, Melbourne went from a sunny 26 degrees to its coldest November day in 80 years.
Snow has fallen on three occasions across the high country of Victoria, NSW and TasmaniaBrisbane, too, has felt the wrath of spring's dramatic twists and turns, with hot, fire-prone days swinging to rain and giant hail, as have many other parts of Australia.It's all about the clash between warm air and cool air, according to Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines. "That's definitely a hallmark of springtime weather — that rapidly changeable, volatile weather, where one day is completely different from the next, and then completely different from the next again," Mr Hines said.Loading... Mr Hines said this was because most of northern Australia was in its hottest time of the year — when the sun was extremely high in the sky, but the thick cloud of the wet season was yet to kick in."Obviously, winter is the coolest time of year there, but there is quite a lag between ocean temperatures and land temperatures," he said. "So you still get these very cold temperatures south of Australia, while it's also nearly the hottest time of year in the north."Supplied: Facebook/Robbie MolesIt means southern parts of the country, from about New South Wales and south, are left caught in the middle. When a weather system moves from west to east across the country, it flips from dragging up cold, wintry weather from the southern ocean to pushing hot air down from the north, leading to big swings. In Germany, weather whiplash during seasonal changeover is so common they even have a saying for the unpredictability of spring weather , which translates to "April, April, does whatever it wants". This is in contrast to a season like autumn, when the temperature difference between the north of Australia and the south is least, leading to longer stretches of settled weather. The weather has been dramatically swinging between sunshine and warmth, and rain and cold in recent weeks.Not only that, Mr Hines said the weather systems also tended to move through a lot more rapidly during spring.Spring is known for its volatile swings in weather.This is also linked to the strong temperature difference between the north and the south, according to Mr Hines. The strong contrast can accelerate the winds in the upper parts of the atmosphere, known as jet streams."When we do see weather systems in spring, often they're moving at a real rate of knots, and they can fly through the country quite quickly," he said.While most of the country is back to more settled conditions today, it's only a matter of time before that changes again. From Friday, thunderstorms — possibly severe — are expected to ramp up across large parts of eastern Australia, peaking on Saturday, according to the BOM. BOM senior meteorologist Jonathan How said some of the biggest thunderstorm potential on Friday was in the south-east of Queensland and north-east New South Wales, as well as parts of south-eastern South Australia.Supplied: Glen and Jo PotterOn Saturday, he said, this would spread to "much of eastern Australia" with thunderstorms possible all the way from central and eastern parts of NSW up into QLD, and into the north of the country by the evening. "And we can expect to see severe thunderstorms possible, possibly in populated areas on Saturday afternoon and evening,"Already this month, Queensland has been hit with multiple severe storms, which have dropped giant hail "the size of tennis balls" on communities.Heading into summer, the long-range outlook is currently forecasting maximum temperatures to be above average for most of the country except for the New South Wales coast.It's expected to be warmer than average across the majority of Australia this summer.The signal for rainfall is less clear, with the outlook leaning only slightly toward wetter-than-normal conditions through eastern Australia, and slightly drier than normal in the west.
Volatile Weather Spring Storm Spring Heat Spring Rian Snow Bureau Of Meteorolgy Weather Whiplash Seasonal Change
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