When erratic becomes the norm

More crazy weather.
I wonder where the climate change deniers have been living?

Today we had a very humid 34oC earlier in the day, followed by a hail storm which did little to relieve the heat. Just now though at 1 a.m. we have had what amounts to a tropical thunderstorm.  Here’s what we are supposed to be having at this time of year. It comes from a website entitled   “The facts about Tasmania’s weather http://www.tww.id.au/tas/climate.html).

The data, extracted from the web pages of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology, is based on Hobart.
The Tasmanian East Coast is milder, the West Coast wetter and the NW Coast windier.

Yearly Mean Rainfall (mm) Highest total first				Mean Daily Minimum Temperature °C Month of July Coldest city first				Mean Daily Maximum Temperature °C Month of January Warmest city first
Cairns		2,007		Canberra	0.0			Alice Springs		35.5
Darwin		1,666		Katoomba	2.5			Darwin		32.4
Southport		1,452		Ballarat	3.3			Cairns		31.5
Katoomba		1,411		Alice Springs	4.1			Perth		29.7
Sydney		1,220		Hobart	4.5			Brisbane		29.4
Brisbane		1,145		Melbourne	5.8			Southport		28.5
Perth		869		Adelaide	7.4			Adelaide		28.5
Ballarat		710		Sydney	8.0			Canberra		28.5
Melbourne		661		Perth	9.0			Sydney		25.8
Canberra		633		Southport	9.2			Melbourne		25.8
Hobart		624		Brisbane	9.5			Ballarat		24.0
Adelaide		555		Cairns	17.0			Katoomba		23.0
Alice Springs		275		Darwin	19.3			Hobart		21.5
					Centigrade Fahrenheit

“Facts The cool, temperate climate of Australia's island state with its distinctive four seasons, (reminiscent of conditions in central Europe without the severe winters) makes this place ideal for year-round comfortable living and touring. The long summer evenings provide opportunity for extended sight-seeing with darkness coming slowly. The occasional deep low in the Southern Ocean, usually in springtime, can produce a gale that "blows dogs off chains" (the island is located right in the Roaring Forties after all). During summer, autumn and winter successive days of calm, balmy weather compensate, while no-one has ever complained about the regular afternoon coastal seabreeezes from October through to May.”

Climatologists did say that for sub temperate regions, erratic weather was more likely. What is even more disturbing though is that no one seems to notice any more how crazy our weather has become. Freak storms in Sydney and Melbourne. More cyclones. Even Hobart has had the occasional one. What would have been alarming a few years ago is just no longer news as it’s happening more and more often.

Nor are things looking much better in the Northern hemisphere, not after the heatwave I experienced in Russia last year and I understand that north America is having a rather mild winter right now.

This has already had an impact on global grain supplies and will probably get worse. Locally unseasonable floods ruined potato crops, cabbages and probably the berry harvest - haven't seen too many about this year, not to mention what Cyclone Yasi did to the price of bananas. I suppose we can only expect food prices to continue rising.

That's my lament for today. 

By the way, having once camped put on Mt. Black in July, I always thought Canberra was ten times colder than Tassie in winter. The figures above prove it, at least in terms of past history.