| 23 |
2013-04-30 |
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Rainfall for April, 2013 on Tamborine Mountain
On April 1st heavy rain from a low with a thunderstorm was recorded. Thereafter there was continued instability associated with a big cloud mass offshore. This brought showers on most days and heavier rain from a trough on the 13th. On the 16th there was a trough and thunder and then it all cleared up – our big wet was over. It was succeeded by cool nights, heavy dews (due to back-radiation) and lovely clear, warm days – typical May weather!
At Fern St. they received 155.4mm and the expected rain for April is 82mm and the average is 131mm. Rainfall for the first four months of the year remained the third highest on record only exceeded in 1974 and 1947. |
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| 21 |
2013-03-31 |
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Rainfall for March, 2013 on Tamborine Mountain
This March was another wet month following on the very wet January and February. Fern St recorded 238mm. This gives a total of 1370mm for the first quarter of 2013 which figure is the 3rd highest for the three months after 2603mm in 1974 and 1834mm in 1947. At Fern St the expected March rain is 155mm and the average is 192mm.
The SOI has been within +10 and -10 for most of the year which encompassed a very dry period and a very wet period. These values of the SOI indicated a probability of 50% drier or wetter than average; in other words average rainfall. It is a good example of probabilities. ‘Probable’ means likely but that likelihood is not always met. So for the last year the rainfalls weren’t always what were likely.
From the 14th there was a broad cloud mass over SE Queensland with embedded lows which coalesced off-shore and gave us a drenching. Another trough into the upper atmosphere brought more rain from the 24th to almost the end of the month. |
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| 22 |
2013-02-28 |
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Rainfall for February, 2013 on Tamborine Mountain
Our rainfall has broken records again as it did last year. We had a very wet February with Fern St. recording 370.4mm when their long-term median is 149mm and mean is 220mm. Following a very wet January recording of 761.2mm this gives a two-month total of 1131.6mm. This has only been exceeded twice before in 1947 (1392mm) and in 1974 (1925mm). In 1976 the two-month total was 1115mm and last year the two-month total was 1036mm.
Interestingly the monsoon trough got nowhere near us in February although much of the rain was due to troughs coming in from the west and developing instability well into the upper atmosphere. In the middle of the month a deep low formed off-shore in the broad cloud mass and gave us a deluge. The map shows a big range of rain across the Mountain with heaviest falls in the middle parts.
And if it felt very wet this wasn’t only because of all the rain but because it rained nearly every day. There were 22 rainy days in February at Fern St compared with an average of 14.5. |
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| 24 |
2013-01-31 |
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January continued very dry with just a few very light showers and an almost dry thunderstorm on the evening of the 9th which was worrying because of the possibility of dry lightning strike and fire. Finally ex tropical cyclone “Oswald” began to bear down on us. Feed in of moisture from the east started to produce showers from the 22nd but the rain didn’t start seriously until the 25th. Rain and wind built up into cyclonic conditions over Saturday and Sunday and continued into Monday as already described. Rainfall totals recorded on Monday morning, Jan. 28 were near record. At the official gauge at Fern St. 407mm were recorded while Paul Lyons in Macdonnell Rd. recorded 520mm and Dawn Hooper in Nth. Tamborine village recorded 492mm (getting up twice in the night by torchlight to do so! Good on yer Dawn). However two top totals at Fern St. over the 125 years of recording were 505mm on Jan. 26, 1974 and 563mm the next day and 1335mm over the four days, Jan. 25 to 28. The results of this were catastrophic on the Mountain.
If you look at the map you can see that people exposed to the NE gale got substantially lower rainfalls over the Oswald period (Jan. 24 to 29) than those behind. The rain appears to have been flung over the top of the escarpment and dumped beyond, and the winds there became more turbulent.
At Fern St. the expected rainfall for January is 160mm and the average is 216mm. |
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| 20 |
2012-10-31 |
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The rainfall at Fern St last month was 25.6mm, well below the expected of 73mm and the average of 94mm. This brings the total for the 3 months August to October to 48mm which is the driest for this period for all years except 1941 when it was 43mm.
There was only one fall of any consequence in the month (the best fall for 75 days), recorded on the 12th, and so it contributes the variability seen on the map.
The broad belt of high pressure, which gives us these dry spring months, has been further north than normal resulting in a continuation of winter rains on the southern fringe of the continent and no sign of the monsoon coming south onto the northern tropics. The SOI has remained around zero but the BoM forecast of a possible El Nino has now been cancelled because the cool Pacific water out from Darwin is now being replaced by warmer water.
Jim Inglis has kindly agreed to do the rainfall at the end of this month so would recorders please phone their rainfall to him on 5545 1070. Thanks. |
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| 19 |
2012-08-01 |
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Rainfall for July, 2012 on Tamborine Mountain
The rainfall expected at Fern St. for July is 53mm and the average 85mm. 47.2mm was received on this occasion which was less than other recorders and marks a month of very variable rainfall. This can mostly be attributed to rainfall recorded on the 14th in windy conditions. This rain, and on the day before, was due to a big cloud mass including two successive lows.
We say goodbye and many thanks for recording since the beginning to Gordon McLoughlin. He and his wife are moving off the Mountain after 26 years. We wish them all the best. |
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| 18 |
2012-06-30 |
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Rainfall for June, 2012 on Tamborine Mountain
June and July are our two coldest months. This June was also a very wet one which made for a rather unpleasant month. The month started with a wet spell from a trough and upper atmosphere low which produced about four inches across the Mountain. A low off the east coast produced four wet days from the 9th. Then on the 26th two lows from the NW merged and turned into an East Coast Low as the southern end reached the coast. This produced another four inches at the end of the month.
Total rainfall at Fern St of 213mm was well above the expected of 51mm and the average of 99mm but this total has been exceeded at least 12 times before. |
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| 17 |
2012-05-31 |
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Rainfall for May, 2012 on Tamborine Mountain
The main rainfall event for the month for Mt. Tamborine was a small cloud on Wednesday, May 23 which deluged the eastern end of the mountain for a few minutes. The rest of us got nothing from it. There was a trough with a thunderstorm on the 4th. Apart from that a few small falls gave us a fairly dry month. The expected rain for May is 78mm and the average is 121mm. |
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| 15 |
2012-04-30 |
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Rainfall for April, 2012 on Tamborine Mountain
April may have been the culmination of two years of La Nina weather. During the month the SOI value became negative. This doesn't, of course, immediately turn off the deluge and rainfall for April remained high. By the end of the month a number of people had recorded over 1300mm for the year already. At Fern St. they received 189mm and the expected rain for April is 82mm and the average is 131mm.
The map shows the Eagle Heights area being a little wetter than Mt. Tamborine and the usual drop off to the west.
I'd like to acknowledge the excellent recordings of Kob Freeman over the years. Kob and Jan have moved so this was their last recording. We wish them all the best in their move. |
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| 12 |
2012-03-31 |
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Rainfall for March, 2012 on Tamborine Mountain
This March was another wet month following the very wet January and February. Fern St recorded 196mm which was more than the expected 155mm and the average of 192mm. Some places on the Mountain have recorded over 1300mm so far this year. Following the good wet season, everything remains very wet and green. The SOI remains positive.
The rain recorded from the 3rd to the 7th was due to the southern edge of the big monsoonal cloud mass which drenched the east coast immediately to our north. The next event, recorded from the 14th to the 20th, was due to troughs from the west combining with the generally low pressure from the north.
Rainfall totals for the month were heaviest across Eagle Heights. |
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| 11 |
2012-02-29 |
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Rainfall for February, 2009 on Tamborine Mountain
Rain this February was notable for some very heavy falls which, on occasion, were also very intense. We had what was probably our most intense fall in the 17 years we've been here of 20mm in about 10 minutes. However overnight on the 24th there could have been more intense falls contributing next morning to as much as 180mm in some parts of the Mountain. This was due to an upper atmosphere low which developed over SE Qld. and deluged the coast.
A series of broad troughs into the upper atmosphere gave us a wet month and there were thunderstorms on the 9th and the 20th.
Fern St recorded 378.8mm which is well over the median of 149mm and the mean of 220mm. The January recording at Fern St was 657.2mm giving a total for the 2 months of 1036mm. This has only been exceeded before in 1976 (1115mm), in 1947 (1392mm) and in 1974 (1925mm). |
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| 9 |
2012-01-01 |
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Tamborine Mountain Rainfall for January, 2012
Apart from showers on the 1st & 2nd, January started very dry. Just as we were wondering if it was ever going to rain again, it came! Troughs and an upper atmosphere low brought good falls on the 16th, 17th & 18th but what looked like an 'east coast low' off Fraser Island didn't eventuate. Then on the 23rd more troughs and an upper atmosphere low combined with convergence brought a deluge over the next 2 days and the rain continued to the end of the month. The map shows considerable variation across the Mountain with totals of more than 700ml on the SE of Eagle Heights and into North Tamborine village. This variation was almost entirely due to variation in the deluge recorded on the 25th.
At Fern St. the total for the month was 657.2ml. This was very much more than the expected of 160mm and the average of 216mm. |
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