The coming of Autumn isn't as big a deal on the coast, but there are some signs:
* Dark when I get up (early - mid March - still gloomy at 7:00am on cloudy days)
* Daylight saving ends
* Easter (first Easter eggs in shops is an early sign that summer is on the way out)
* Need use blankets again - late March / early April
* Get out coats / jumpers - normally April. Hopefully find a $20 note in coat I haven't worn since last winter.
* Put away fan - normally end of March but this year I didn't need to get it out.
* Dig out heater - normally early / mid May
* Occaisional calm sunny days - these are uncommon in summer because if there's no strong air circulation pattern the seabreeze takes over

I like the look of EC at the end of the model runs, could see some April like weather that is cool and sunny with westerly winds by the Equinox. I am far from believing long range forecasts of a wet April at this stage.

Same here. Spent pretty-much all of yesterday mowing. I have a tough Rover push mower, goes high enough for the rocks and things, handles the weeds OK. Did about 7 different areas of grass (alleged grass, well it was green) but ran out of 50:1 before the big proper lawn. I was so stuffed. The clippings are good, they get sprinkled around the bare ground, and make it possible for the grass seed to grow, it's been really effective. Bare ground that's been bare for years, a few layers of clippings and grass seed and suddenly it's all grassed. And this is the time to do it, autumn is excellent for getting grass going.

But in the evening, I took a walk down to the big tree I sliced up 2 years ago, and there's some promising cracks in the rounds, so shortly it'll be the block splitter and the ute, getting that wood for winter heating.

Ant, its a busy life living in the country, do not know how we find time to go to work.

I think I will be watching the models quite closely now, I can sense that early autumn change is just around the corner just near or past the Equinox. 06z showing good agreement with EC, looking foreword to those cool sunny days and cool nights and probably the first light frost of the new season.

I have been working the past 4 days, that's for sure. Tomorrow (today, really) I go back to non-work. Tons of things on my list still not done, the broccoli seedlings are still in their punnet... pulled a lot of stuff out of the veggie garden but didn't get to put in the new pooh or new plants/seeds. Sprayed the hell out of a few acres of weeds though.

I was hoping for a long mild autumn, I hope you're wrong about an early winter. I just planted out today some Burke's Backyard cold weather tomatoes in special dodgy little beds I made at the foot of a rock wall. An early frost is not wanted. These things apparently can handle frost but not when they're so little.

We people with solar panels are hanging out for some sunny autumn days to compensate for that sad excuse for summer.

ACCESSR 00z shows an autumn trend by 00Z Friday. Of course, that isn't a forecast (humans make forecasts, not models) but its interesting to see just a bit of zonal activity showing up.

Bugger. It is so nice today... warm, a little wind, the sun isn't as fierce as it would be in January, it's incredibly civilised. I wish all summers were like this. And I see they've extended the warmth a bit, and as hoped, "storms" have crept into tomorrow and Thursday. Yippee.

But to have a cold blast so soon, that's not fair.
Edit: is it that High that's quite low down, in the Bight, behind the trough? That would be pushing some nasty cold air up at us.

Yeah, not really a cold blast just yet ant as its probably still a bit of a summery trough setup as this initial front weakens on Friday.

Extended GFS shows signs of a more zonal pattern possibly starting, we will have to wait and see. Yeah, there is some cold air moving into the Bight later in the model runs, at present anyway. Typically nothing really eventuates of a wintry nature in March but the end of GFS is showing some possibilities.

Hopefully the cold stuff fizzles. A long Indian Summer would be nice, and allow my poor tomatoes to ripen. Today was so nice, and it was quite warm this evening, until a cool easterly began wafting through.

Interesting sweep of cloud through the Bight.

As Blizz says, there's little risk of genuine cold in March as the sub-tropical ridge is usually way down south, contracting fronts to the high latitudes. Tassie and NZ see some of their most settled weather in Feb-March.

I'd like a dry and warm period as well,as long as nights remain cool and days don't get into the 30's.

About 9 here this morning - big fog, it got much cooler than I expected.

After Tennis (about 9.30) last night it seemed still quite warmish - heaps of bugs in the lights (humidity seems to encourage that) it felt like it wouldn't cool as much as recent nights - Wrong again. Sun working on clearing the lifted fog atm - breeze still very fresh.

Add to Southerly Buster's recipe for Perfect March... all of the above except I'd like rain every 3 or 4 days, possibly a scenic storm around 6pm. It's nice to enjoy the warm, without the fear of it flaring up into a heatwave. Seeing everything furiously growing, the fuzz of green grass (from my carefully strewn seed).

Drippy dewy morning here, and yeah, there were significant bugs around last night! The air cooled right down but it was still shorts and t shirt until bed time.

I'd even be happy if we stay dry until after Easter, though I'll be careful what I wish for. I reckon next summer will be a good test of where we're at climate wise this decade, with both ENSO and IOD predicted to remain in the neutral range.

Blizz, DaveM and other high country folk, You got to love the latest 00z GFS.
Still looking good for those cool sunny conditions from the Equinox.
Good chance for that early light frost for sure, nothing too major of course, but nice.
Yes SB, I will be happy too to stay dry for a few weeks at least.

Yeah. It'll be interesting. What's the rain going to do, and what're the temperatures going to do. I've been wondering the same thing. Lull before the heat storm? Or more "normal" rainfall?

GFS quite bullish indeed - worth watching. Right on time for the equinox almost to the day.

That red line is pushed well north for this time of year. Have to see what the other models think as well the next few days.

18z GFS even more bullish. Models still jumping around as Blizz says at this time of year, but now this scenario seems to have been repeated in quite a few model runs so who knows. Certainly a noticable cooling of some sort already seems near certain in that time period of end of next week.

Yes I've been watching that cold area in the long term models and it's been reasonably persistent for a while that there was some substance there.

Tassie certainly looking quite interesting let alone possibly some errant flakes in Vic & maybe NSW alps.

Snowies area may see frost afterwards even around say Jindabyne/Adaminaby - Still I usually expect a frost at some point around April around here too but usually mid to late, it MIGHT just come a little earlier for someone in our region too this year.