weather – bobmcgee

Minus 18°B …

This is my (temporary) new way of expressing temperature. In Mallacoota, Vic it’s 5am and 8°C. In Broome, WA, it’s 26°C, Of course it’s only 2am there and the humidity is 77%. So for a Broomite in exile it feels like -18°B. Which is better – snuggled under the doona frightened to come out or lying on top in a lather of sweat?

For those of you who live not far north of the Gulf formerly known as Mexico that’s 46°F, 79°F and feels like -33°B. For those in Canada I apologise for being such a woos. Heading into a winter like yours and living next to the Rufous Doofus it takes a lot of courage to be a Canadian.

Yesterday’s weather (before the very impressive thunder storm) photographed by Gayle McGee …

Meanwhile the long lens has been getting a workout. The Pelicans here are well educated creatures that gather where fishermen gut their catch. They too are feeding chicks.

Clairvoyance …

Well, disregard that last sentence.

I started to get worried about a couple of days ago when Weatherzone published Unusual late May deluge for northern Australia with the news that “The coastal tourism hotspot of Broome sees just 27mm of rain in on average in the whole of May but is expecting as much as 80mm next Tuesday alone.” It was accompanied by a very colourful map …

and followed by local government warnings about driving into flood waters and a flood alert for the Great Sandy Desert. I have little faith in weather forecasts.

Just to illustrate how bad they are today’s forecast was for showers this afternoon amounting to about 4mm. I headed out for my morning ride at 0630 in a very light drizzle and made it back by 0700 looking like a drowned rat. There was at least 4mm in my left shoe alone.

No Gutters …

So Singapore is wrapped up and it’s home to Broome, just in time for the wet. That’s Man-gala in the local Yawuru language. Last year’s wet was largely spent wondering when the rain would come. This year is a different story. Gayle insisted on our morning bike ride. We got back looking like drowned rats. 54mm in 34 minutes. That’s 2¼ inches in neolithic money.

You rarely see any guttering in Broome. No need at all for half the year. In the other half when it rains it’s with such intensity that gutters wouldn’t cope.

The Cone of Dryness …

… has finally moved from above Broome. It had been raining all around us and, at last, it has dropped a couple of decent showers on us. The frogs were very happy this morning.

There has been enough cloud around to give us moody skies for a few days. The rainfall that you see over the sea moved fairly quickly ashore to drench the photographer. We must suffer for our art.

Eventful …

The last post featured birds at Streeters Jetty. I had company while I was there although I saw no sign of it. The area was closed for a few days. It was caught and turned out to be 3 meters long. It is now a resident at the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife Park. Some photos shamelessly filched off the internet …

I hope you enjoyed the gallery of birds that I risked life and limb to bring you. There may not be another for a while. The autofocus on my beautiful 200 to 600mm Sony lens has given up the ghost. An opportunity to buy a new lens! At least I’m trying to look at it that way.

It rained yesterday. Just a few millimeters. It was about 4.45 in the afternoon. It took a while to work out how to turn on the windscreen wipers it’s been so long. After the rain the temperature dropped to a mere 26°C. Overnight temperatures have been higher than that in recent days. It was too late and too little to avoid this being a record. Forget living memory. It is now the driest start to the wet since records began in 1939.

But at least we have cloud. I was out just prior to dawn. This was Town Beach.

S’rainin …

But it’s the dry!

I woke this morning to the sound of a gentle rain. It is the first time I’ve heard it since moving to Broome about six weeks ago. So in my limited experience this is unusual. The recent settlers of tropical Oz have dispensed with spring and autumn as far to subtle to detect. Impressed by the big changes we have ended up with just two seasons, the wet – November to April and the dry – May to October.

The people who have lived here for millennia had more to consider than whether the roads were passable or impassible. They had six seasons summed up by the school children of Ardyaloon thus …

So currently it is Barragana and yes, I have heard people complain about the cold (mean daily maximum 29.3°C, mean overnight minimum 15.2°C).

How rare is rain in June? The average is in fact 18.2mm. It doesn’t seem likely that we will break any records. The wettest June on record was in 1968 at 208.1mm.

There were clouds in the sky last night.

Cool …

Well, yesterday it made it to the promised 44° …

This little fellow took shelter in the shade.

A welcome cool change came along in the afternoon dropping the temperature by 15°C in an hour. Strong winds brought raised dust which presented us with a gorgeous sunset.

Meanwhile 2,600 plus kilometres north-east Cyclone Penny has both cleaned up her image and intensified in strength. It is expected to weaken before making land fall.

Today has been much cooler. But that won’t last long

Penny’s Dropped …

Down here in the south-east of Australia we’re bracing for 44°C (111°F in the old money) which brings the attendant risk of bushfire. We have our plan at the ready

but we still have the humanity to think of the folk in far north Queensland in the path of Cyclone Penny.

They’ll, no doubt, be expecting a few inches from that.

Tag: weather