Tasmanians - please keep your weather at home

Beloved Taswegians, please keep your awful weather to yourselves.

We do not want it here, in middle NSW (or for any Tolkeinists, should that be "Middle Earth" or "The Shire"?)

Thanks to the magic of the Bureau of Meteorology's website, you can see there is a high pressure system parked just west of Tasmania, with a low out in the Tasman Sea - and that gives direct northerly winds between both systems. That chart is from two days ago (5 am, 22/10/08)

We here in Robertson have shivered for the last 3 days. By chance (not really) I awoke shivering in my bed. I was really cold. I happened to glance at my handy indoor/outdoor thermometer (in the corner of my bedroom) just to see what was going on. It was showing 3 degrees Celsius outside. It gave me a generous reading of 5 degrees inside. That is to be expected in July, but not mid October. Plus it has been "windy as...." - by then a howling gale had arrived.

Our cousins in Katoomba got a dusting of snow. Better them than me, I guess, but then, they are much higher than we are. We are at 750 metres (2460 feet) above sea level - they are about 1000 metres (3280 feet). However, there is always a "happy snap" to take if it does snow. (Linked image - horses at play in Mt Lambie area (near Lithgow) - Nick Moir - SMH) We didn't get that opportunity. But having experienced snow here for 4 days once, I am not all that keen to repeat that exercise.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported it in this fashion:

"A low pressure system over the Tasman sea had the effect of sucking up frigid air from Australia's south, delivering a record breaking cold snap and even snow to highland areas across NSW.

"Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jake Phillips said it was the coldest two days, back to back, in an October since 1973. With the cold temperatures came blustery winds and intermittent showers."

By one of those ironies of Google-based advertising on Internet websites, the SMH story about Sydney's "Tasmanian-style" weather, they carried this advertisement - right next to the lead paragraph.

These photos taken late on Tuesday afternoon (21 October) - (just as the weather arrived) show the fog closing in, from out of Kangaroo Valley (south from my house).

To get a better idea of the contrast from the normal late afternoon view - click on this link.

4:40 pm
Power stanchion outlined against the wave of fog rolling up the valley.

4:43:10pm
Power stanchion silhouette barely visible

4:43:34pm (24 seconds later)
What power stanchion?

The fog really did roll in as quickly as these timed photographs show:- the power stanchion which is a mere 300 metres away, disappeared from sight- within in 3 minutes. In particular a thick wave of fog blocked it out completely in the last 24 seconds between those last two frames (above). Thank heavens for the mysterious data stored by digital cameras, right down to the second in which the image is taken.

An hour later, all I could see was the trees at 50 metres distance - all else had disappeared.

5:40pm

After the fog rolled in, the evening was followed by a severe weather front, accompanied by strong winds, and rain. Robertson topped the State (again) with 23 mm of rain overnight that night.

To my beloved fellow Tasmanian Bloggers - if that's your idea of weather - please keep it to yourselves. (Nothing personal Mosura, et al - please forgive a little "literary licence" being exercised. With weather like this - we have to blame somebody.)