yeah monday is shaping up as a potential STINKER if those 850 temps do eventuate and the cool change holds off

im looking forward to see how it plays out but it would be better if the hot weather was on the weekend

It's been interesting watching the heat build up in Northern Australia in a very summer like way this month. (As a comparison it's normal in summer to see a 28+ 850hPa hot spot develop NW of Alice Springs, except it's only 20degC now). But EC is suggesting a good old fashioned Sou-wester mid-next week across SE Australia to return things to normal.

See also my comments in snow forecast thread regarding "triple whammy" effect...

Melbourne is another capital city in Australia where a minimum temp of 30°C & above has been recorded.
On 1st February 1902, Melbourne recorded its highest minimum temp of 30.5°C.

with air con mate with air con

my gf doesnt have it and oh man two of us in the same bed with 25C dew points ewwww

Well at least it's not us for once getting the ridiculous heat. As Tony noted earlier in the thread, there has been no substantial warmth here in southern and central VIC other than the night on the weekend in Melbourne and other areas near to the coast that broke records.

Here on the same night it got down to 8.7C just before 9am and was only 10C for most of the night so the heater stayed on, so that hot night wasn't a statewide thing by any stretch of the imagination.

What it has been though is very mild overall with no cold outbreaks of any description at all. In fact we have only had the odd day you could even call cold and we still have another two weeks to go of winter.

Latest models show this warmth breaking right down as we finally get a LWT passage allowing a large area of cold air to spread over the SE of AUS and later on right across the southern half of the continent. Could even get an actual cold outbreak early next week.

Interesting some people saying Brisbane doesn't get the extreme heat we can get down in the south. If we are purely talking summer then that holds true a little.

As for the other months, IMO any place (especially outside of the tropics and coastal) that has recorded a 31.6C max in June, 29C in July, 32.8C in August, 38C in September, 40.7C in October and 41.2C in November is a place prone to extreme heat for most of the year.

Couldn't imagine a 38C in September and 41C in October, that's insane. I know Brisbane is subtropical but still that sort of heat blows any concept of seasons you may have up there out of the water. Basically speaking it can get hot up there at any time of the year.

To some extent, the same could be said for Sydney.
Even though the highest recorded temps are lower than that of Brisbane's, it is just as insane.

In Sydney, temps got to as high as 30°C in early May (1919 in CBD; 1958 in Richmond), 27°C in June (1931), 26-28°C in July (1990), 31°C in August (1995; 33°C in Richmond back in 1953 ), 35°C in September (1965 & 2000) & 38°C in October (2004; 40-41°C in western suburbs back in 1988 )).

Here is some unseasonal heat that was recorded in Sydney:
* 4th April 1986 - Western Sydney had temps as high as 39°C.
* 30th September 1980 - South-Western Sydney recorded temps as high as 36°C.
* 29th September 2000 - Homebush Bay recorded 36°C during the Sydney Olympics.

As far as records show, the earliest month that Canberra see maximum temps of 30°C & above is in October (33°C in 1946), whilst the latest (ie. before winter kicks in) is in early April (33°C in 1986).
As for Melbourne, they had as high as 29°C in early May (1905), 27°C in late August (1982), 31°C in September (1928) & 37°C in October (1914 & 2006).

And on the same theme, the thresholds for Adelaide:

Into summer:
30°C: 30.4 - 30/8/2007
35°C: 35.1 - 30/9/1961
37.8°C: 37.9 - 12/10/2006
40°C: 40.3 - 10/11/1897
42°C: 42.7 - 30/11/1962

Into winter:
42°C: 43.3 - 20/2/1980 (41.9°C was recorded on 6/3/1986)
40°C: 40.5 - 17/3/2008
37.8°C: 37.9 - 29/3/1986
35°C: 36.9 - 9/4/2005
30°C: 30.6 - 8/5/1912

We haven't seen much sun this month in Perth, we had the highest amount of sunniest days last August and this year we are averaging on 5.4 hours of sunlight a day. (Apparently somewhere in the paper it said it was least sunniest due to constant cold fronts and cloud cover)

30 deg for Perth I reckon will happen ..... I am going to say mid october like last year,

if that doesn't occur I will say November 12th.

Ahh that is something I don't miss from when I used tolive in Qld. Dry heat is much more tolerable for me.

I don't really know what to think with these forecasts the BoM are issueing. Days are going from a forecast of 29 down to 21 between updates. To tell the truth, I don't think any of the hot weather forecast in the next week is going too eventuate, much like what happened on Sunday. On the other hand, the 850 temps are looking good (but then they were for Sunday as well), and if the temps do eventuate, I really can't imagine what September / October / November are going to be like.

Just 20C predicted for Alice Springs next Tuesday, so hopefully that's the start of a cooler spell for the east .

Only a short lived break again at this stage. I can still see nothing in the models that is really changing patterns from the status quo. Just a bit of cooler drier air from the SW rather than the usual warm westrlies for a couple of days.

Looks like the warmest air on the weekend will once again pass over us at night on Sunday night, the only reason we are not seeing records fall.

I get the feeling at the moment that Summer in SA is going to be INSANE!!

Monthly temperatures 'up to 4C' warmer
Article from: The Advertiser
CARA JENKIN
August 19, 2009

MAY has been the only month this year where the state has recorded below-average temperatures.

Bureau of Meteorology figures show that, apart from May, monthly temperatures have been up to 4C above average in some parts of the state.

Intense temperatures in late January and early February across SA, including the nine-day heatwave in Adelaide and six consecutive days above 40C, increased average temperatures.

Unusually balmy weather in the first half of August has included temperatures more than 10C above the average.

Adelaide's maximum temperature of 26.7C on Saturday was well above the August maximum temperature average of 16.6C.

The Weather Company meteorologist Brett Dutschke said it was a record for Adelaide to be so warm so early in the change in season.

The average temperature so far for August in Adelaide is 18.5C – 2C warmer than average – and is as warm as the month of August in 2006 and 2007.

"But given we're coming into the warmest end of the month, there's a good chance we'll end up with a higher average than 18.5C," he said.

Adelaide's warmest August was in 1982, when an average of 19.9C was recorded.

Mr Dutschke said clear skies and a lack of strong cold fronts had contributed to the early-season warmth and it did not normally get this warm until late August or early September.

August temperatures across Australia also could be the warmest on record.

The National Climate Centre records Australia's average temperature so far this year as being 0.53C above the average of 21.8C.

The year is expected to be in the top 10 warmest years on record.

Strange usage of the word balmy there. My dictionary defines that word as:

balmy |ˈbä(l)mē|
adjective ( balmier , balmiest )
1 (of the weather) pleasantly warm : the balmy days of late summer.

Isn't August normally hot enough in Adelaide for that particular writer of that article???

A normal day for August in Adelaide wouldn't be pleasantly warm at all, hence it wouldn't be balmy. :rolleyes:

We often invoke 'balmy' when describing our nighttime temperatures in the summer- "..on a balmy Sydney summer's night..".

I can tell you that such nights are far from pleasantly warm when you're trying to get to sleep.

Those types of nights are best described as being humid or sultry.

I've always thought of balmy as being those times where the days and/or nights are mild and pleasant, e.g. usually April and mid-late September/October on the NSW north coast, before the real humidity kicks in (or as it is 'dying down' in April).

Once again Sydney seems to be escaping the heat today by having summer type NE winds. Up here in the mountains it feels downright hot. You can see on the readings of 18 in Sydney yet around 15 up here only 3deg difference. Almost melted down the main street of Lithgow. Mount Ginini a boiling 9deg for August.

Well that 20c has now been upgraded to 25c!