A cold end to April in Tasmania

http://www.bom.gov.au
30 April 2009

Record low April temperatures at some sites: The last two mornings have seen Flinders Island Airport drop below its previous April lowest temperature of 0.1 °C, reaching zero on Wednesday and down to -0.3 °C on Thursday morning. Several other sites (including Fingal, Geeveston and Dover) have also registered record low April temperatures. Meanwhile, Orford, Scottsdale and Tarraleah are among those to have had their coldest April days on record.

Near-record April low for Tasmania: The temperature at Liawenee, on the Central Plateau, dipped to -7.5 °C on Wednesday morning. This is the second-coldest April temperature ever recorded in Tasmania, just short of the -7.7 °C at the same site in 2001. It is still well short of the annual record of -13 °C recorded at Butlers Gorge, Shannon and Tarraleah in June 1983.

Three cold days in Hobart: The maximum temperature at the Bureau of Meteorology’s observing site in Battery Point, Hobart on Monday was 11.5, on Tuesday 11.3 and on Wednesday 11.1 °C. This is the first time since 1952 that Hobart has recorded three consecutive April days with the temperature below 12 °C, and it has only occurred on six previous occasions since measurements with standard instrumentation began in 1896.

Two cold mornings in Hobart: The temperature at Hobart dropped to 1.3 °C just after 6 am this morning. On Wednesday morning it dropped to 1.7 °C. This is the first time since 1953 that Hobart has had two consecutive April nights below 2 °C.

Four cold days in Launceston: The temperature in Launceston only reached 11.6 °C on Sunday, as cloud kept temperatures down in the north of the state. On Monday it reached 13.5, on Tuesday 13.0 and on Wednesday 14.4 °C. This is the first time since 1986 that Launceston has had four consecutive April days below 15 °C.

Three cold nights in Launceston: Launceston recorded minimum temperatures of -0.3, -0.5 and -0.6 °C over the last three mornings. A run of three April nights below zero has not been recorded since the current observing site was established in 1980.

Cold weather interstate: Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT have also been experiencing unseasonably cold weather, with similar long runs of cold days and very low temperatures at some sites. Temperatures recorded on Wednesday morning at the alpine sites of Victoria’s Mount Hotham (-8.2 °C) and NSW’s Charlotte Pass (-13.0 °C) are both new record April lows for those states.

Read more here