Weather pix for Max and Dr WxNut
Hope you slept well. You guys do get some really interesting weather down there...
it’s a weird winter - 26degrees C in the middle of Monday afternoon! That’s like a summer day. Usually it’s around 18C.
Last evening it was around 18.6 C, felt like 9.5. No wind, no rain, just cool.
We usually get fierce crisp westerly winds in early August, it’s a regular feature. Not this year. Dead still, and crippling drought. Fifty per cent chance either way if El Niño or La Niña for summer...
oh, and almost no surf for the last month, until Monday when it was small to medium waves but at least something.
Max, our Bureaux have recently begun a new series of ‘let’s explain how we understand what’s going on’ backgrounders, which feature on the ABC and in various social media.
This is a really helpful explanation for what’s complicating our current lack of rain:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-14/southern-annular-mode-and-how-it-affects-our-weather/10106134
Sydney’s extremes in some rare kinds of weather events.
Indications are that a few of these will cycle through again the next 12 to 24 months, as worldwide weather changes.
Nothing that bad here in terms of symptoms, but as New Jersey becomes more subtropical people are starting to notice.
I just read about the thickest Arctic ice breaking up for the second time this year...
So Max, our usual August westerly winds are nearly four weeks late this year, and are quite warm instead of bringing ice and damaging hail.
Sadly, the wind is blowing arable topsoil from valuable agricultural lands in the Darling Downs over the top of the Dividing Mountains and over Brisbane, into Moreton Bay...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-01/dust-storm-covers-brisbane-south-east-queensland/10190768 We’re way too dry and hot, and already heavily into bushfire season (months early).
May I just chime in here and report that WxNut got his PhD in Meteorology two weeks ago. He's done!
For Dr WxNut!!! 
sbenois said:
May I just chime in here and report that WxNut got his PhD in Meteorology two weeks ago. He's done!
congrats and well done!
joanne said:
So Max, our usual August westerly winds are nearly four weeks late this year, and are quite warm instead of bringing ice and damaging hail.
Sadly, the wind is blowing arable topsoil from valuable agricultural lands in the Darling Downs over the top of the Dividing Mountains and over Brisbane, into Moreton Bay...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-01/dust-storm-covers-brisbane-south-east-queensland/10190768 We’re way too dry and hot, and already heavily into bushfire season (months early).
How Much Hotter Is Your Hometown Than When You Were Born? https://nyti.ms/2LIewIK
That’s a very interesting link, thank you. It doesn’t include info on my birthplace or where marksierra lives, sadly (seems to make incorrect assumptions about the temp there). I was curious to see results for several cities around the world.
If you happen to use social media, there's an Australian Weather group that's worth browsing for some magnificent images.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WeatherObsessed/
It's a public group and is run by members of Australia's ABC - the national broadcaster.
Just saw this. Thanks everyone! As for the pics, fall streak clouds are awesome! We had some back a few months ago over Maplewood. Wish I could find the pics I took!
Not strictly a weather photo, but a dramatic tale of lifelong weather observation 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-20/draculas-weatherman-transylvania-antarctic-brisbane/10388066
Thought both of you would be interested in this weather app, developed here, to add on-ground data to national weather service data, especially in times of extreme weather events:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-16/weathex-new-app-research-qld/10496202
I obviously don't have the words to explain it properly, but I'm thinking of the fire tornados we had a few years back, that no-one had ever seen before but the conditions around Canberra were so intense that the phenomenon occurred in several places and spread the fires more rapidly. Then there were the incidents a month ago mentioned in the article, etc.
Some of your extreme weather event warnings would benefit from similar systems too, I'm sure, as long as people can get the info and then get somewhere safe.
Such a pretty dish! Painted by local indigenous artists, it’s situated on the Giles weather station, most remote on mainland Australia. We’re moving to unstaffed stations but Giles will remain staffed
(@marksierra HELP! I put in the URL but when I post, an emoji appears in the middle of the link)
(@marksierra HELP! I put in the URL but when I post, an emoji appears in the middle of the link)
I got the same result, too, @joanne.
Maybe we should try this, instead -
https://tinyurl.com/Giles-Weather-station-story
The photo joanne is referring to -
The old weather radar at Giles station was painted by the local Warakurna Indigenous community. (ABC News: Nick Hose)
The above story was also featured as a video on our (Australian) broadcaster's Rural program. (You may need to use a VPN to access the story)
Grr. The same problem with the URL as in joanne's link above .. so try using https://tinyurl.com/Giles-Weather-Station-video-st
Sydney is literally awash.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-28/sydney-weather-best-pictures-of-rain-and-storms/10561096
Meanwhile, there are 80 fires in central Queensland, and most of Queensland is experiencing hottest-ever November temperatures (several places in the 43-45degrees C range). We were told yesterday morning it’s classic ‘tornado firestorm’ conditions.
A huge thunderstorm with lightning and large hail has just erupted on the Gold Coast, and the birds have gone into nightfall behaviour. (It’s 12:45pm)
Think twice about having Christmas holidays around this part of the world, folks. Not going to be a great season, weather-wise.
Make that 140 fires across Queensland. (It's now 5pm)
And Sydney's morning storms included a mini-cyclone in the suburb of Chatswood, that tore the side off at least one building.
Satellite pix and fire prediction software pix showing tropical rainforest areas burning, in our recent fires
As the article explains, this is something not seen before - true rainforests don’t burn - and is equivalent to the Arctic ice sheets breaking up.
The article combines real-time photos on land, weather satellites, NASA satellites and more so we can learn from fire and weather conditions not seen in over 110 years of records.
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Sorry for posting just as I'm going to bed...
Only discovered this lovely news article now. Punch-hole clouds over Brisbane, and SE Queensland, this arvo - truly, a mid-winter puzzler
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-07/clouds-punch-holes-in-brisbane-sky-but-no-alien-invasion/10083458