Melbourne today has been sweltering under app. 40c temperatures with nearly that yesterday as well. In other words, it’s been stinkin’ hot!
However, due to our climatic variables, a ‘cool change’ swept in about an hour ago, reducing temperatures by about 15c in as many minutes. The ‘changes’ come in mostly from the south west (from the Southern Ocean), and often bring rain and thunderstorms, but not always. Today it is just cooler air, and it is a blessed relief. Our hot spells (of this magnitude) rarely last longer than three or four days before the change hits.
I was wondering about how these things work where you live. Do you have days of heat followed by such a rapid cool change? Do you have to endure longer spells of bastardly weather? When a change does come, where does it come from? BTW, I guess it’s not just hot weather I am asking about: for those of you with bitter cold and snowstorms and such, when it ‘warms up’ (apart from seasonally) what causes such a change for you?
I could respond better if I paid closer attention to Elwin Taylor, the climatologist on the local NPR station – but here in Iowa, I think our sudden warmups come from the south (the Gulf of Mexico) and our sudden cold comes from Canada (the Arctic Clipper).
Our moisture usually comes from the west and northwest – we often get what’s left of Washington’s rain and Colorado’s snow.
But it seems to me that our worst weather – tornadoes and windstorms and the like – come from the southeast. I know when there’s an east wind to watch out.
And yeah, we’ll have days of heat or cold followed by sudden (short-lived) changes. 40 degree differences aren’t unusual. There have been days when I’ve used both the furnace and the AC.
It is currently -5C here (see Location tag). This is creepy for almost mid-December, usually we are approaching -30C without the windchill at this point. The last few winters have been pretty mild here. But we can switch temperature ranges fairly quickly, just like you described.
Our winters tend to be damn cold and perpetuate the stereotype of Canadians living in igloos. Our summers tend to be in the 25C range, with some days hitting over 30C. It varies so much over the year! The transition from season to season is fairly typical though and happens gradually.
We’ve had gale force winds and pounding rain/hail every day for over a week here in West Cork… yesterday was sunny, dry and calm, the wind picked up again during the night and it’s lashing rain just now. It’s supposed to get really bad later on today
It’s been around 5-10 C during the day, and dipping just under the freezing mark at night. We had a very light, but pretty snowfall in late October, nothing since then. Of course, winter hasn’t even started yet.
Must say, I prefer this weather to kambuckta’s. We had some 40 degree days during August and I felt like I was going to die.
Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘bastardly’, but winter usually starts in October, and we have snow on the ground full time through May. We have plenty of beatiful bright sunny days. Colorado is know for that. But at my elevation, when the snow comes, it stays.
Here in the Florida panhandle, our weather comes from either the Caribbean, up the Gulf of Mexico, or in giant bands of rain that move from west to east in a vaguely circular motion. If my unscientific watching of the radar maps means anything, storms on the Pacific Northwest, if large enough, will sweep down the continent, across Texas and the gulf states, across the Panhandle and then go either north up the Atlantic seaboard, or out to sea.
Winter has come early to Florida this year. But it can’t seem to make up its mind! One week it’ll be high 70s and low 50s, the next it’ll be high 50s and low 20s. Two weeks ago, I was 200 miles east, where it was low 80s during the day. Back here in the last week, we were wearing winter coats and gloves, and had the furnace running. This week, it’s going to be 70s again. There isn’t really any weather here, outside of hurricanes, that could rightly be called “bastardly”, unless you want to count that it’s 95 degrees, give or take, every day for at least six months.
It was a chilly 19 on my way to the office this morning at 0630. Now, twelve hours later is it 26. About as cold a day as you will see in seaside Jeddah.
To reply to the OP, the weather here changes slowly with the seasons generally. The temperature each day does not have large swings. In Dammam, we could have 38 degrees for weeks at a time, at midnight. That is impressive. The highest I have observed here is a balmy 45.
During rainy season, it rains a couple times a day for a few hours. During cold season, it gets down to the 70s in the nights and mornings. During hot season, it gets up to 130. Other than that, it stays around 100 pretty much all the time.
They have a saying in Texas, “if you don’t like the weather, just wait ten minutes.” Weather changes fast and often. A week and a half ago it was over 80 degrees. That evening a cold front swept in from Canada, and it dropped to 27. We mostly get either cold fronts from Canada or big warm fronts sweeping up from Mexico. The combination tends to create impressive lightning and thunderstorms and, fairly often, tornados.
Are storms what you mean by bastardly weather? We get those frequently but they usually don’t last long. What we do get are long stretches of very hot days, often over 100. (I remember one summer where we had 45+ days of 100+ weather with a peak of 115)
Of course, it’s different down here, on the coast of the peninsula. It rarely goes below 40 - 45ish, and a week in the 30s would be a shock. Our weather here does swing back and forth quite often over the winter, but usually only a 20-degree spread.
F’rinstance, last week, the temps ranged from 67 overnight to 84 during the day. Then a cold front blew through a couple days later that dropped the range to 45 - 65 – but now, a couple days after that, it’s more like 59 - 76.
Where I live, I’m lucky in that I live on a peninsula on a peninsula. My state is surrounded by water, and so is my county. There’s almost always something of a breeze, and the water moderates the temperature swings very well. Inland, it gets much hotter and much colder over the year, but where I am, there’s only about a 30 degree difference between high temperatures over the year. And only usually a maximum 20-degree difference between day and night – over the summer, more like a 10-degree difference.
But it does rain a whole bunch over the summer and this year in the winter. They don’t call us the Sunshine State for nothing.
As far as where the weather comes from: Cold weather from the northwest, hot weather from the southwest, and the wind usually from westish. The prevailing winds here blow from the west, which is why you can watch hurricanes enter the Gulf and start wandering toward the east. Usually.
Today is not particularly cold, although it is spitting rain. A few days ago was a lot nippier. It is interesting that the season is not more consistent.
Very warm. It’s Dec. 11 and I am wearing just a hooded sweatshirt. I heard on our local news that we were warmer than the northern part of florida. Our highs today was mid 40’s. The rest of the week is high 30s. This is uncalled for in Minnesota.
I see some brave souls on the lakes. Last week my pond was about 4-5 inches frozen. After the last couple days I bet my pond has shrunk to less than 3 inches. Yet I see idiots out on the ice with ATVs and trucks. So far one atv and one truck has fallen through the ice. GG idiots.
