Certainly in the Central Tablelands Autumn is here. This morning had a lovely Autumnal feel - heavy dew (wonder where the moisture came from?) nice clear blue sky morning (now fairly cloudy though).

Stacks of trees now turning or hinting at turning already. Breeze is pleasantly cool. I know we will get more warm weather but I love this anticipation of more coolness out here.

Single digit temps forecast for several nights this week.

I agree! I love this time of year. Even put the flanno sheets on the bed lol. Noticed yesterday even though we are at Faulconbridge my lipstick maple is starting to turn a light shade of red. Here's hoping it all leads into a great snow chasing season this year!

One of the real charms of the Tablelands is that they have genuine seasons. In Autumn, after a couple of hours' drive I can be in a place that's crisp and cool, even cold on occaision. Good weather for walking. On the coast, especially after a mild, wet summer, there isn't much of a sense of changing seasons, with mild to warm and often damp weather continuing into May with a very gradual cooling down.

The main change of Autumn on the coast is a lowering of dew points which is always welcome
Temp/DP doesn't normally back off untill April here, so still a little while to go yet.

As a bit of fun, here are figures for Jan - Jul for Bathurst, Gosford, Norah Head & Hobart


To see the movement of Max temps mainly in the 3 centres is interesting, of course nights VERY different between here and coastal areas but also interesting to see the movements.

AND what will surprise many I suspect is Hobart's temps - check Hobart v Gosford Min in July.

Max Temps

BX GOS N/H HBT
Jan 28.3 27.6 25.7 21.7
Feb 27.3 27.3 25.9 21.6
Mar 24.7 26.0 24.9 20.1
Apr 20.6 23.5 22.8 17.3
May 16.1 20.4 20.0 14.5
Jun 12.5 18.0 18.0 12.0
Jul 11.5 17.6 17.2 11.7

Min Temps

BX GOS N/H HBT
Jan 13.3 16.9 19.6 11.9
Feb 13.2 17.1 20.0 12.0
Mar 10.4 15.3 18.8 10.9
Apr 6.3 11.8 15.8 9.0
May 3.3 8.3 13.1 7.0
Jun 1.5 6.6 10.9 5.2
Jul 0.2 4.8 9.7 4.6

I leave you to review but it's interesting to see the movements between places getting warmer/cooler than each other etc. Eg in Feb Bathurst & Gosford have identical max but look how the max changes from March Onwards.

Sorry that hasn't worked very well - need to set up a table.

haha yeah the formatting on these forums aren't very good, i tried a similar thing last week and it came out messy.

As for Gosfords minimum temps, I believe thats a pretty localised thing. I often note that they have no wind at all on many winter evenings and there temp drops rapidly. Some one who is familiar with the stations location should be able to give a reason why this happens.

The "Gosford" station is actually in or near Lisarow - ie away from the water in an enclosed valley jus a few km north of Gosford Town centre. It's quite removed from the effects of the water. Places like Lisarow/Ourimbah etc can actually see frost.

However it's interesting to Contrast Lisarow with Norah Head. One of my brothers lives at Tumbi Umbi which is only several km from the Ocean and Tuggerah Lake but it's much colder overnight than The Entrance.

The other really intersting thing is that most people would be surprised at Hobarts temps - it's not that cold really overnight in winter. It's not really colder (overnight) than just near Gosford - nobody will believe that but the stats are there. Gosford overnight July 4.8, Hobart 4.6

And yeah shame about the formatting.

Yeah i had a feeling it was an enclosed valley, i asked the question years ago as its always way colder then here. Im probably 10-15km from the ocean but in a more open location, get the WNW'r draining down the Hunter valley most mornings which keeps the frost away.
Hobart is surprisingly warm, im guessing its because of wind?

IMO, the Gosford station is in an appalling spot and is not representative of Gosford at all. My mother lives at Gosford and i often note the difference in temps/wind during my visits. If you punch the below coordinates into Google maps you can actually see the WS on street view.

33.3949°S 151.3289°E

It was feeling like autumn here a week or so back, the sun had that really tired look to it, the light it cast was more orangey than in summer. A few of the mornings were all drippy and autumn-y. Then we had all that rain so no sun!

The trees were doing yellow leaves a few weeks back, the cold especially over night was telling them it was time, but then it got hot before the rain, and mild with the rain, and I think those leaves dropped off and they have called a halt to more yellow leaves while they sort themselves out.

You can use [ code ] tags to use preformatting, such as this:



Doesn't look pretty but at least it's formatted

Yes, and frequent cloud cover. Hobart is firmly in the westerly belt in winter, thus doesn't see too much fine settled weather. Different story in central/northern NSW where highs can park themselves for days on end- this is why we see -10's on the Northern Tablelands.

Re. the OP, I wouldn't be calling autumn just yet but by gee it's close. No summer like warmth for the next week at least, it seems.

Davidm - that's exactly what I wanted - well done.

Hobart also sits smack on The Derwent River which is really the ocean - hence sea temps moderate the cold too.

SB also on the mark re cloud and not many still nights although there are more still nights than many might think.

As soon as you travel even a few km inland eg Richmond, it's much frostier. Just upriver at New Norfolk is much frostier too so I put much of the "warmth" to the huge Derwent Estuary.

Go several km inland and 1.265km vertically up and it's much much colder (Mt Wellington).

Hobart though whatever the reasons is NOWHERE near as Coooollld as most people believe.

DUBBO NSW is colder overnight than Hobart - MANY inland areas of NSW are the same.

Just thought it interesting to point it out.

The nights tell us when Autumn arrives around here - it's here, been a noticeable change the last couple of weeks.

Hey SB - Hobart is in the Westerly quadrants virtually 99% of the time

Smack in the Roaring 40's

The numbers show why Bathurst has seasons - an annual average temperature range of 15 degrees from about 6 to 21, compared to a typical range of 10 on the coast.

15 is still narrow by North American standards, but comparable to ranges in Western European capitals e.g. London (5 to 18), Berlin (1 to 19).

Wouldn't go that extreme myself, the jetstream/westerly disturbance belt tends to bow south of Australia (and Tasmania) between January-March at least due to the heat of the mainland. Places like Invercargill and Dunedin, further south and further removed from the hot Australian landmass, tend to stay in the westerly belt most of the time- in no month does the average maximum exceed 20C (compared to Hobart's 22-23C).

The odd snow bearing cold front can impact Tassie at any month of the year as you know, but they are still the exception.

Thanks davidm, I just made a test copying that code, will save it somewhere for future.
But needed to test first hence this post which I have now deleted.

Bathurst forecast (including this morning) on Opticast is 6 mornings in a row of 8 or 9 degrees and the 7th day 10.

Autumn is here in this little neck of the woods.

Nice & cool here - approx 16 degrees atm.

What conditions are needed for the best Autumn colours?