Stream showers ahoy!

Hopefully at least the Dry season will be above average...

Well, I managed 220.8 mm for april,- not brilliant but 23.7 mm above the long term average. I think we'll see 7 or 8 months of SE trade winds now.
The highs down south will soon move north to centre about adelaide latitude,- so strong SE winds and some stream showers. 9 months of the year with trade winds is why I sold my reef boat. Maybe full on blue skies but blowing like buggery.

I think we might see a few months of the trades but then a switch to offshore later in Spring. I'm still going for a nino but it is early days.

The SE trades are just fine if you don't want to go to sea. Good for 'blow boats' - (yachts) who want to go NW or parallel to the coast but then you need to get back. Many pay for a tow by coastal freighters.

347mm for April ,
18mm this morning ..

I hope we don't end up with a wet drizzel dry with endless SE's .. I stayed home this year instead of going south to harvest cotton, thinking i should do all right with planting cane. hate it when it drags on for months ..

anyway its the weather so will just have to sit back and wait

cheers

Another 17mm this morning
just keeping everything soggy ..

cheers

Bit like Cairns here today, overcast and drizzly - just about 10C cooler

Do miss the heavy Cairns drops though, rain here is pathetic (when we get it :P)

Down to an almost chilly 16.5 degs at home thismorning. Massive tides arund Cairns last night. Sea water was coming out of drains right up as far as Mulgrave Rd. Tonight is a tad higher I believe.

Things when conditions are right you'll get some ripper storms in that area with good heavy downpours. Just not as often as us

Hehe, no more storms here for a few months now, really getting into a winter pattern now. Been below 5C for the last few nights,.with 0C forecast for Monday next week

Funny how this forum has died off completely now the wet season is over

Brilliant full moon for the past few nights Things. Fires on the beach, Venus and Mars in alignment.... feel well soon mate.

Yeah, got a good snap a few nights back:



I do remember this time of year being amazing in Cairns. Cool mornings, non-stinker days and beautiful skies.

We went out for a meal with a couple of fellow WZ members and it was quite mild out. We managed a few spits of light rain on the way home.

The steak was the best I have had for a long while.

Hi all, back from holidays. Thought I'd share a few photos from tonight - taken in the backyard.
P.S Nice photo of the moon Things

Hi all - just wanted to drop a quick intro into the mix here. Long time lurker, first time poster. Recently moved to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait from Brisbane, but I'm originally from Cairns.

Don't read much on here regarding anyone else who's living up here, so I could be the only WZ'er up here.

Getting a fair bit of rain up here today, which is a nice change as we've been copping wind for the last 2 weeks or so.

Hope to be able to contribute a bit to the forum as far as weather from the Torres Strait goes! Cheers, Kel.

Hi Kelmac and welcome. I don't recall any member from T.I to be honest. It will be good to have your input. I think you best get used to the wind up there!

Hey Kel, great to have someone from up in the Straits. As we all know that area (and the Cape) is an absolute hive of activity weather wise. Look forward to your comments and observations.

Thanks guys! We got around 50mm of rain yesterday up here but it was incredibly still. Not 100% sure but I think the weather may have caused significant delays for QantasLink coming up yesterday too (it gets a bit rough in those Dash 8 Q400's and Q300's on the way up). Will do my best to make sure the Torres Strait has a good representation on the WZ forum Cheers!

Welcome Kelmac, enjoy your stay. Great bunch of people here

Nice photos Westy80 :-)

Oops... great pics from both Westy and Things

Thanks boomer

Got to 0C the other night, yet I'm still in my shirt and shorts! Not used to this cold weather business yet

It is nice to be able to sleep in silence though. Mum has been saying it's fan and aircon off weather at night in Cairns now - best time of the year.

We went into town earlier on (just on dark) and could tell it was going to be a cool night. Down to 17 degs outside already despite the airport forecast of a minimum of 21 degs. Brrrrrrrr.

A tad warmer at the coast CF. Ive got 19.4 deg at 22:45 hrs.

Not weather related but I was looking up just before about 7pm and got a great view of the Intl Space Station as it passed over Cairns... view was lost the further east it travelled as it departed the setting sun in the west... seen it several times before but it always blows me away and makes me feel like waving to the Major Tom's inside the tin can.

Well a nice wet morning up here

15mm waters the gardens / lawns nicely ..

cheers

We had a very welcome 80mm in the last 24hrs down here near El Arish.
Very nice though I just hope it doesnt drag into a cold wet winter.

Been drizzling fairly consistently in Cairns since last night... looks like the airport Obs are offline (not that it matters... they never seem to match up with greater Cairns).

another 17mm this morning
with showers still coming through ..

nice score there Pogo

& I am with you on not wanting a long wet winter
would be nice to see the SE trades drop off for awhile
so can get a spot of fishing in ..

cheers

Im with you there Bunyip..sick of these constant 20 knot trades so far with not even a day or 2 of slack weather between the high pressure systems..itching to get to reef for a couple of days but confined to catching a few estuary species in the little tinny..

Off Topic :::

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/cargo-ship...u-1226360919052

Well here we go , not a disaster yet but not a good situation. We will be seeing this type of event on a regular basis as the export of coal and gas steps up .. I'm not a raving greenie but something needs to be done about protecting our reef .. Maybe GBRMPA need to station tugs in ports all the way up the coast so they can respond very quickly to stricken ships ..

Cheers

Well good they got a Tug onto that ship before any disaster. But 30 hrs is a long time to be drifting around ...

Back to the weather , 34mm here this morning .with showers / rain coming through still .
driveway is a mess again , corolla could be staying out if this keeps up ...

cheers

9mm at Bilayna overnight, 40mm over the last 4 days.

We have had around 160mm over the last 4 days and that puts us over the 3 meter mark already for the year.

22.6mm from midnight home here. This is almost Melbourne weather (though it would be 10 degs cooler). Although it has been heavier at times for the most part it is wind blown drizzle. Certainly has made it cooler too. 21 degs at our warmest time of the day.

Hehe, grandma from Cairns just emailed me saying it was 20C and raining sideways - Do miss that kind of weather. Hasn't gone above 14.5C all day, but at least it's nice and sunny.

Just looking back at the cyclone season, looks like it was a pretty huge flop (Well, good thing for most people). Probably because the season was late to get started.

Good morning folks

another 30mm this morning .Its starting to add up with 156mm for may..

YS your doing well down there mate , lol

cheers

It started off quite but the last 5 day have yielded around 200mm
the neighbours aren't impressed though they can't get in or out of their driveway again as it has gone like a pile of slop.

What a joke WZ forecasts are. They change their mind once or twice a day! A seven day forecast is changed so often that it is most times, not even for 24 hours! And they promote a service of "Speak to a professional meteorologist" at "(calls are charged at $5.50 per minute inc. GST)".

I wonder if they get any 'suckers'.

Nice big fat band looking set to hit Cairns and southern corridor.... been waiting all day for this one!

yep boomer, Cairns looks like it's getting the heavy rains and not Townsville as expected.....next week OCF has some good falls for you guys as well, if it comes off ...my sis who lives just as you come in to Cairns at one of the new estates said she has had over 100mm in the last few days,things must still be lush there....Maggie is getting the odd spit here and there , I think we've had 4mm of the forecasted 28mm so far but we still have tonight !!!! Good luck with that heavy band of rain that is coming through as I type.

Wow it's dark outside for this time of day. Looks like that band to the nth east will hold together. Here's hoping anyway.

Just back from Weipa and Aurukun, very dry up that way compared to here atm. Good to see our temps aren't too cold for this time of year either, has been a real boon.

Nice heavy rain howing to our nth at the moment on the coast. It should be a wet day today.

I'm sure I can hear thunder out there?

Pelting down atm..rain is sideways and very strong winds at Gordy.

You sure can. Fairly constant rumbles here and steady rain.radar looks fantastic.

Warnings on BOM.

I lifted this from that warning. Amazing rainfall for the end of May.

Significant rainfall totals from 9am Thursday include 311mm at Nerada alert,
221mm at Halifax and 189mm at Mona Mona Alert [between Port Douglas and Cairns].

Great rain totals for May thats for sure, currently on 91mm here in BP. Hope that stuff just over the north beaches slowly makes its way down here.

It's just started getting heavy here Pac. You should hear it shortly on the roof. Rainrate is around 70mm per hour.

76mm up here , great rain for may thats for sure

Driveway is now officially a bloody mess ,lol
darling daughter is learning to rally the Corolla

cheers

wow its really coming down now , heaviest rain in months. reports of roads closed in cooya beach .. local creeks up ..

cheers

Cracked the 100mm mark overnight here (104mm). Unusual to have to empty the pool in late May. Stil raining and a few more bands showing on the radar to come yet.

Nice to see 123mm for the 24hrs to 9am this morning in BP. Great falls all over, just what the place needed as the ground was starting to dry out.

Port Douglas Carnival street parade postponed till next Friday 1st June..

The Rex range is closed due to landslips ..

Wild wild weather for May , but loving it ..

I reckon they may have to cancel again if this East Coast Low forms.

Been some real tropical downpouring in Kuranda . The Barron has gone down but still flowing and the B.O.M. Is forecasting locaL moderate to heavy falls for mid to late in the week. This sure is a wet start to the dry season!

Sources indicate 50-100mm in the Cairns area. Quite possibly more between Cairns and the Ville. Trough offshore will influence before moving further east around the weekend... coool weather to follow in the evenings.... sunny days.

Well the first showers of this weeks lot arrived with the light about 25mins ago.
Just drizzerly light shower stuff but its started ..

was hoping it would be late arvo or even tomorrow , was meant to be spray painting a new trailer today, oh well .

cheers

looks like alot of rain on your radar, hope not enough to cause any problems

wow just back in after driveway works

did not expect to see the radar looking like that ..most seems to be slipping passed me sofar . but the drizzel returned about 1/2 an hour ago ..

cheers

well 16mm this morning..Gets me over the 3m mark for the year to date

looks like I should be able to re appropriate another load of gabion rock into the swamp that my driveway has become

cheers

It's ok I'll keep chatting too myself

June kicks off with 15mm , can't belive SBT got more in townsvile than I did here on the mighty daintree ..

Looks like wet weather for carnival round 2 tonight as well ..lol

cheers

LOL FNQ!

Been wettish in Bilyana as well. The cloud cover has slowed down the grass growth thankfully!

non stop drizzle/rain here also there is thunder around.

Electric field mill showing charge

Is it my imagination or has the BOM Cairns radar become less sensitive lately?

It's the type of rain we are getting.. It's very low forming as it comes onto the coast so slips under the radar...

*Crawls out of hibernation out the sound of thunder lol. Storm heading for edmonton gvale area! In May?!?!? Thunder sounds pretty constant. With it being such a small cell I imagine plenty og close CG's if you're under it

lol, a storm forming over Cairns, not dying for once??

Lightning tracker hasn't picked it up yet.

Haven't had a storm here in a good few weeks, Few rumbles a few nights back, just been freezing cold!

Thanks Bunyip, though makes planning for shopping difficult.

Can hear distant thunder now

woohoo a nice little storm on the radar out the back , can it get too port in time for the street parade ??

cheers

Just had a call with a report of small hail in the Whyanbeel area , woohoo ..

Hail? Near Port Douglas... wow

This weather sucks. I am going pasty from lack of sun. Livio said conditions should improve next week...

You trust Livio? To be fair he is pretty good, but if you scan on WZ you will be well ahead of him.

good morning folks

34mm here this morning. storms rolled around for a while with a few good flashes just on dark as well. Wish I had got the fire going yesterday arvo as it would of been alot nicer sitting watching it with a fire.

RD, yes the cloud has slowed the grass growth but it seems to be thicker so harder too mow ,lol

Must be a drop in the winds coming soon , I want too fish .!!

Cheers

Brrrrrrrrrr.

Agreed!! Thank god for the invention of the doona!

Indeed, I'm living in one at the moment!

Hoping to head back up to Cairns for the solar eclipse at the end of the year. Might end up moving back there yet.

You'll be back Things. There isn't much in Wodonga.

Well, mainly because I'm with my dad now. He thinks he'll end up being posted to Darwin or maybe even sent off to Afghanistan next year. I'll either probably move to Adelaide and do a course there, or head back to Cairns where my mother & brothers are.

Had a great day cassowary wise. Two in a matter of minutes. Be careful driving in cassowary country.

That whole piece is excellent. Great find. The start makes me miss the build up to the wet season.

Well, trackie dax and flannie shirt on for the third night in a row.

Yeah, brilliant, but it's been pulled as I was a very naughty boy and multi posted it. Very contrite after being "modded" due to apparent complaints for posting it on several forums. Wont do that again, irrespective of wether something may be of interest or not.
So as it has been pulled and you have commented, here is the link , but mods I promise to leave it here on my home forum..... Okay?.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw

Min temps of 12's and 11's over the next few nights for Cairns. Will surely be much cooler on the tablelands and at the bottom of the ranges and valleys. Brrr!

Some beautiful temps up there at the moment!

Even though I love the cold, it's a bit difficult waking up in the morning when everything outside is covered in ice.

Probably will end up moving back to Cairns with the rest of my family next year. I can stand the heat, but Darwin is a bit over the top!!

off to stock the freezer , been enjoying these great days on the water

Down to 11 degs tonight the forecast.. I'll need the long sleeves.

$50 bucks says he'll be charged with her murder. It's just about always the husband or a relative.

http://www.news.com.au/national/allison-...r-1226394643996

off for another exhilarating ride down the river with the cold land breeze at my stern and the glow of morning on the bow

What a great time of year .

cheers workers

10 degs at home at the moment making it the coldest morning so far this year.

How did you go..?hope you are feasting on some lovely fresh tropical fish..

The weather has been magic this week down here.
Decided thursday was the pick wind wise so put off a couple of jobs and customers and pulled my 11yr old fishing mad son out of school and headed out wednesday evening for a couple of nights at the reef..

Only trouble was the fish were on the bite and we filled the 210 litre esky by lunchtime next day and had to come home ...great fun watching my boy struggling to land nannigai one after the other...caught some spanish on floaters and live bait as well but the boy was reluctant to take the rod for them.. hopefully next time he will have a bit more
confidence..just magic watching him mature into a little man..

Wind was 10-12 knots going out and dropped off to 5-6 knots next morning...varied from Sou'west in the morning swinging around more Sou'east in the arvo..overnight was very mild and despite the clear skies not really cold at all..

Its days like that this that make life in the tropics so special.. and the boy even wanted to take in his teachers favourite fresh mangrove jack fillets to her today ,so that was a nice gesture to see as well..

Hopefully we will see few more windless days in between the high pressure systems from now on..

Yep all went too plan Planting starts on Monday so I will probably miss a couple of months of good weather , so it was nice too get the opportunity too fill the freezer befor hand..

Sounds like great times Pogo , my daughter so wanted too come out but year 12 is just too full on too miss a day for fishing .

Cheers

Windy this arvo in town. As we drove home a fire broke out on the slopes behind forest gardens (still burning) .

At least the nights are warmer with these sth easters. 4 more nights of winter chill before I start a new adventure of daytime work.

Showers are forecast loclly next week. It wuld be very timely with the garden needing a nice soaking. It is starting to look like we may actually have a neutral pattern next summer rather than BoM's forecast nino which bodes well for our wet season.

Warm neutral seem to deliver the best CS tc action historically.

Coastal Waters Wind Warning
For Torres Strait to Burnett Heads.
Issued at 11:00 am EST on Saturday 23 June 2012

Synoptic Situation
A high [1034 hPa] lies over southwestern Australia and is expected to intensify as it moves eastwards to lie over South Australia on Sunday. The high extends a ridge across southern Queensland.

Strong Wind Warning
Torres Strait to Burnett Heads
Expect S to SE winds 25 to 30 knots from early Sunday morning. Seas increasing to 2.5 to 3 metres.

The next warning will be issued by 5 pm AEST.

Please be aware
Wind gusts can be a further 40 percent stronger than the averages given here, and maximum waves may be up to twice the height.

Bloody freezing.... some hope for wind drop by late Monday
A large high [1033 hPa] over South Australia extends a ridge across northern New South Wales. The high is expected to move slowly southeastwards and weaken, becoming centred over the eastern Great Australian Bight by late Monday.

Strong Wind Warning
Lockhart River to Burnett Heads
Expect S to SE winds 25 to 30 knots. Seas to 3 metres.

Winds are expected to decrease below 26 knots during Monday.

Hi all, I have visitors here from Tumut and they want to go on a reef trip from Cairns. Can anyone give me an idea of what the weather is going to be like up to Saturday July 7th?

Very windy, scattered showers rollingstone north to cairns

Thanks.

AKA pretty typical Cairns winter weather

25 knots SE winds

..a bit rock and rolly..I just had a beautiful weekend out there saturday and yesterday off Mission beach..glassy flat at times up to 12 knots or so maximum..fish biting,,great visibility for snorkelling ..just beautiful..

Currently in Cooktown and just back from Archers point where the constant winds would have been easly gusting to 90km/hr. Made for very hard walking conditions and standing upright still was impossible. Can see why Cooktown area is regarded as one of the windiest spots in Australia.

Arlington Reef gusting to 65kph.... man it's cold.

Someone said to me that in the 1930's it once snowed in Atherton on the Tablelands. I know it can get frosty up there - but any confirmation on snow? Surely it was a flurry that melted straight away if anything...

Is someone pulling my leg?

well a wet good morning to you all .

13mm here yesterday morning and 32mm this morning. looks like a few days off for me..

very little of this shows on the radar as its just constant heavy drizzle, good weather for the fire and a movie , will have to dig around in the frezzer for some soup bones .

cheers

Whooooo hammering down right now out here.

Was woken by rain! jumped up to check radar and backyard (first decent rain in new rental property) cresent shaped pond in yard. Quite right marakai Whooooo!

77 mm over the last 24hours at Kewarra Beach. I'm guessing most of it would have been in that BIG burst of early morning rain reminiscent of the wet season! Didn't bother getting out of bed as I could hear how big it was. Still drizzly here. Yay, a week off from watering the garden :-)

84mm up this way this morning
the radar was looking pretty good @03:00
pity its moved off shore.

cheers

39mm in the past 24 hours at home. Me suspects my raingauge may need a tweak. Excellent rain regardless for July.

Did someone order the wet season returned? 104.1mm here for the past 24hrs and 235mm since about saturday.

I'm really missing the Cairns golf ball sized raindrops

Down here it can rain ALL day, no break, and only pick up 10mm lol. Might be back there next year though

29 degs today. What a stunner it was. Especially after several overcast ones. Moderate falls are forecast for Sunday. Early days but it does appear there is a disturbance moving in from the nth west coral sea.

Another warm one today with 28'c here at home, DP reached 24'c and RH 97%. Not unusual for Cairns to get this in winter, won't be long till winter conditions return.

Off to Bamaga for work tomorrow, i'm sure it will be hot as usual

And windy.... hope you're on one of the bigger planes


Coastal Waters Wind Warning
For Torres Strait to St Lawrence for Sunday.
Issued at 4:35 pm EST on Saturday 14 July 2012

Synoptic Situation
A surface trough will move off the southern and central coast of Queensland overnight and during Sunday morning. A high will move into central Australia during Sunday and then move quickly eastwards. Ridging will strengthen along the east coast of Queensland during Sunday and Monday.

Strong Wind Warning
Torres Strait to Bowen
S to SE winds will increase to 25 to 30 knots during Sunday afternoon and evening. Seas will increase to 3 metres outside the reef and to 1.7 metres inside the reef.

Strong Wind Warning
Bowen to St Lawrence
S to SW winds will increase to 25 to 30 knots offshore during Sunday morning. Winds will shift S to SE at 25 to 30 knots throughout during the afternoon and evening. Seas will reach 3 metres offshore.

The next warning will be issued by 11 pm Saturday AEST.

To believe that these were the wind gusts http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ60801/IDQ60801.94287.shtml
is simply unbelievable. Try close to twice that strength away from the airport.

Hah, the dry season thread has to be one of the most uneventful ever I think

Yeah Things, pretty stock standard weather this time of year. Pleasant weather to work in,
and great weather for sleeping cozy under a doona!.

Went up to Cape Trib today, what a lovely day!! Coming home the ocean was glassy, not a breath of wind. Be a great night to take the boat out.

Reached a minimum of 6.3c here in Bilyana this morning, 10.1c at the moment.

BRRRRRR!!

A truly stunning day up here today. We went to Bramston Beach and it was magical.

An absolute pearler of a day, clear blue skys without a cloud to be seen. Max temp 29'c RH 42%

Might be in for a cool one tonight and Sunday is forecast to get down to 10"c at airport, that will make it around 7'c here if it comes off; the coldest day of the year so far!!

Went for a run down to Innisfail for work. A little blowy down there but Bartle Frere and Bellenden Kerr in total view were stunning.


This is the first time northerlies have blown in August for a few years. Definately more of a nino feel with lower humidity and cold nights. It could be another late start to the wet this year if history is any indication.

mmm, that sounds nice ...

Leaning more and more to moving back to Cairns next year - other options are Darwin or Adelaide .. But don't think I could stand Darwin, and have no family in Adelaide, so Cairns is standing out a bit more. I do love the place though.

More than welcome back mate... you (and Coldfront) are the drivers in this thread.
Re Nino comment from CF... agree.
BTW... apparently we should be looking north in the early hours.... big meteor shower on the way.

Actually, the records indicate quite a few days in August 2011 on which northerlies were recorded. The set up this year so far is quite similar, so I agree that the wet will most likely see a long and slow buildup, however at the moment I tend to disagree with the models and progs for Nino (as I did last year). I think that we'll see neutral conditions over summer developing into another Nina during 2013. Climatologically, the current situation doesn't really stand out as being anything special - neither Nino or Nina.

Not sure if that is a good or a bad thing .. Although says a bit when you compare our 7 page dry season thread to the Cardwell-Bowen's 62 pages. Everyone up North goes into hibernation during the dry season

Have applied for engineering studies at JCU next year, so looks like I'll be heading back . Will be back for the solar eclipse anyway, can't miss that!

Annoyingly you don't find out if you got in until January, but worst case I can just get a job somewhere. I love Cairns

Thanks Boomer. Definately different feel to last year.

When's the meteor shower?

The meteor shower was in the early hours of the AM but apparently is also early hours tomorrow (obviously it's ongoing but we cannot see it in daylight!). Despite it being a Northern Hemi event it can be seen from Cairns or most places north of Brisbane. See http://www.examiner.com/article/2012-per...ugust-11-and-12

Gee what a cold night, our coldest for the year so far- 8'c here in BP, AP only got down to 10'c.

Last night i saw a couple of meteors around 9pm, didn't have enough will power to stay up and watch the early hour session.

Tell me about it. I was kayaking on Tinaroo last night and I
had absolutely zero feeling in my feet for hours. Stunning night though.

****FOUND**** 1 X Victorian style cold snap, would the owner please come and pick it up from Far North Queensland.
6 deg here at 5:11am this morning? that is HIGHLY unacceptable!

With a Bit of luck though thses sort of cold snaps might be a precursor to a decent storm season.

Last night was the best time to view it in Australia, however the meteor rates shouldnt drop too much, so if you are keen enough, head out monday morning between 1am-4am and you will see a few. The meteors will be radiating from the North - East. I went out last night and scored 3 spectacular fireballs, and also saw 15-20 true persied meteors in a hour and a half or so. It was an average night, a few years back i socred 68 in a hour.

I went out at 2.30am and didn't see anything for 10 minutes. In the end the cold won out (It was 9 degs at that stage). So you probably saw the better part of it Pac.

8 degs here too for minimum. Freezing (in FNQ language).

It all makes for what will be a stunning day. Even Townsville's nice at this time of year

Brett don't know how u did it though i am sure the visual effects of the stars made up for it; great spot for stargazing.

Lol Yas Shack love it!!

Sure is another pearler of a day CF, how lucky we are. I miss the last few weeks spent in Bamaga for work catching up with old friends and foes; days where around 30'c and nights 21'c. I have overindulged in my fair share of island food, i must be looking like a big Dugong now

Hey all,

Thought I would say hi. New to Weatherzone forums and new to FNQ. Just moved up here from SA and I am loving it.

It is nice to get some warmth into my bones. Was living in Berri in the Riverland for a few months before heading up to Cairns and it was bloody freezing. -4.9C a couple of nights before I left.

Looking forward to the stormy season, some humidity, and some very impressive 24hr rain totals, the likes of which I have never seen.

When does the humidity start to build and things start to fire up?

Cheers
Simmo

Welcome to the forums Simmo and welcome to tropical far North Queensland!

Generally, the heat arrives before the humidity sometime in mid to late September. This is the driest time of year across most of Northern Queensland, and also the most dangerous in terms of fires.

October-November heralds the start of the storm season, and a pretty dramatic increase in humidity.

Of course it varies from year to year though. Hope this helps!

Should be back up there around early November to catch the eclipse, and stay up there. Cairns here I come (again)

Welcome Simmo. Warmth in your bones? It was an ungodly below 10C last night.
Give yourself some time... you will soon acclimatise LOL

I will say hi too! I moved Melbourne seven years ago to Townsville and discovered a love of Tropical weather and the fantastic information on Weatherzone. Came to Cairns in early 2012. The Townsville forum is very active but all forums up this way have lots to offer. I am really looking forward the summer!! Does anyone known when the first long range forcasts come out from the BOM and others for the summer 2012/2013? I am guessing we might be in for a drier summer but wondering what other know

IIRC the long term overviews/cyclone outlooks come out in October.

Dan

Hey Mandy,
Looks like we are moving into an El Nino phase so that means a drier wet (pardon the tautology). However, that does not necessarily mean less cyclones despite what the BoM may say. The long range stuff generally starts to seep out around mid October. In this case BoM is best if often a tad conservative. Beware of some of the independent forecasters who have either a profit agenda for their own publications or websites as well as those that think a major mango flowering (as we now have) indicates a heavy wet.
As for my predictions.... ignore them. But I do recommend both you and Simmo have a crack at the tropics comp.
Further to that if you are looking for a single resource to access most of the relevant TC sites then search 28 Cyclones. From a more local perspective and in depth look join Oz Cyclone Chasers http://www.ozcyclonechasers.com.au.

Thanks for the welcomes.

@ RD, cheers for the info
@ boomer. Definitely gonna have a bash at the comp, should be fun and thanks for the links.

Thanks for the welcome,great information boomer thank you. Love to follow the cyclones but enjoy all the smaller storms as well. In Melbourne plenty of storms roll in but they often lack the extra dynamic that a warmer storm has!! nature in action. On the warmer days when you see the whispy clouds hanging above the hills behind cairns I have often wondered if the moisture is hanging above the hills and forest because it is rising out of the forest or it is hanging there because of the layers of air and humidity. Which is it???

Probably air rising up the sides of the mountains creating condensation/clouds.

Welcome to the forum, Cairns is great in the winter and fun in the summer (Except when it's hot, humid and not raining )

Should be back right before the action starts again

PS: Can anyone confirm if Lyndons on Sheridan St near the Airport road is still there? They still show up in yellow pages, dad has told me they are (or were) a good source of things like styrofoam and plastic sheets?

Mandy, in my humble opinion, one thing to be aware of is our most severe weather storm wise comes from inland. However as Things well knows out west there is something of a Bermuda Triangle that occurs once Saddle Mountain, Lake Tinaroo and the Lamb Range comes into the frame. It's incredibly frustrating for us. Mt Yarrabah can also be a storm killer when the radar looks like bringing it on. Our best storms south of the beaches tend to come from the north (although when the triangle is broken it can be spectacular).
Having said that the most mind blowing incredible storm of my life came from the east on the tail of Yasi (but that is a different story).
Dan, re Lyndons, I don't know, will have a look for you. Is it on the right or left going north?

Yep, the magical Western Cairns storm vacuum - though I agree good storms come from out that way. Ones that form out over the ocean usually sideswipe and head down to Innisfail area or far northern beaches - pretty frustrating



The vacuum also has the ability to swivel and suck up storms coming off the ranges.

boomer, pretty sure it's on the right side heading north, along with that other line of shops there, if they're still even there

Dan

LOL
You've done posted that before.
Be great to see you back.

Lyndons is still there things. I was there twice last week.
Lots of tradie tools and materials. The shed to the south of the main (office) building is where you'll find your plastic sheets etc. They have perspex up to about 10 mm thick also.
I've purchased a lot a this for different projects. Usually a good selection of off cuts in a bin for bugger all money.

Oohh, neat!

I have got my laser cutter up and running and am going to need a good source of plastics.

I am also working on a giant digital clock that'll span over 6 metres.

Do you know what standard sheet sizes they have? Say 1200x900? Also say ~1cm thick styrofoam and ~3mm HDPE?

Need to find a good source of that stuff, shame bunnings dropped most of their foam stuff a while back, but fairly expensive.