Is this the new normal?

[angharad_gam]

 Usually a long string of very hot days is followed by the famous Adelaide cool change, where the wind switches suddenly from blowing down from the desert to blowing in from the sea.  The temperature  can drop ten degrees in an hour. I love those cool changes. But all this summer we have been seeing a different pattern: a string of hot days followed by rain, which makes everything super sticky and humid for a day, and then cooler weather after. Given that it's not unusual to go three or four weeks without any rain at all here in summer, this is deeply wrong and needs to stop.

Comments

[reverancepavane]

Expect more rain. Whilst we used to look to Perth for our weather, now it is more likely Broome. The tropical storms now have enough energy to make it across the continent. I'm glad to see the global warming predictions of 30 years ago are coming true.

[angharad_gam]

Yes, I was thinking it's not unlike the weather my family in southern Queensland tends to experience - a long hot spell broken by a storm or heavy rain. The only slight difference is that their hot spells are increasingly humid, while ours are (for now) still dry. In other words, our weather is becoming increasingly sub-tropical (which is, indeed, one of the predictions of global warming).

[dotcom1144.wordpress.com]

Except that's not happening here anymore. We used to get clear sunny days and afternoon rain storms in summer, but this summer it has been very dry and we have either been getting cloudy and drizzly all day or rain in the morning. This year is the first time in over 5 years of living at my house that I've had to drive to the train station to get to work because it was raining so heavily

[angharad_gam]

Yes, I suppose if things are changing for us, they will be changing everywhere. Did you see 4 Corners last night? They had a lot of interviews with vintners who are having to change their practices because grapes are super sensitive to temperature....