VIC - Weak troughs and highs: Feb 16-24

[Adam38]

Things are certainly depressingly bone dry out here in the western desert. The only areas with any tinge of green are those that are being watered regularly.

Rainfall wise we haven't even made it to double figures for the month.

Yep it’s terribly dry out this way.

Off topic but why is it that a lot of public parks( apart from sporting grounds) in Melbourne aren’t watered and left to die in summer?
It’s something I noticed when I moved here from Perth.
Most of Perth’s public suburban parks and gardens are irrigated with bore water and more recently recycled storm water.

Because they are looked after by stupid local councils that want to save money all the time.

Are Perth’s parks looked after by local councils or state government?

Agree it’s crazy here to let them all die

Local councils look after parks and nature strips in Perth.

[Sean]

The amount of money this city wastes on planting is a joke. Don't get me wrong, I like tree lined streets and parks, but every time they plant trees they don't ever look after them. So they waste money and labour only to then let them die.. I've also noticed that there are crooked plants everywhere... The wind blows the stakes out, bends the tree over and then no one does anything about it so then the tree establishes itself crooked. This doesn't tend to happen in nature, because the tree sends down a big tap root to ensure it grows upright, but when you plonk big trees in the ground they need to be supported until their root systems are extensive enough.

Also, they keep planting inappropriate trees! Anyone been down St Kilda Road lately? The elms look like sh*t. Either water them or plant trees that can cope with these never ending stretches of dry weather

[Tassiedave]

I notice on this evening's BOM forecast the temps for Horsham and Mildura on March 1st are projected to be 41 and 40 degrees respectively

[hillybilly]

I notice on this evening's BOM forecast the temps for Horsham and Mildura on March 1st are projected to be 41 and 40 degrees respectively

Next week looks like a bit of a shocker once you get inland and west. Be mid to high 30s most to all the week. For almost autumn it’s getting pretty unusual. To our north heaps of records are falling including Townsville which has had two 40s this week. Keeping hoping to see a break in the pattern, but the big dry and record or near record warmth just grinds on. Perhaps time for a thread for the week of heat and perhaps the odd shower Hopefully not too much wind as the grasslands and forests are crispy dry

[Sean]

Might as well start a new thread beginning with this stretch of warmth. Noticed a 37 in the forecast. Call it the Pre-Autumn Doldrums..

[Horts]

Next week looks like a bit of a shocker once you get inland and west. Be mid to high 30s most to all the week. For almost autumn it’s getting pretty unusual.

Unusual?? It's February/early March. Unusual would be what we've had the last two weeks.

Bring on the heat.

[Macedonian]

1mm in FC overnight. That could be it for Feb. We're just shy of 50mm so an OK month, but still about 15mm below average. We've now had 12 of the past 14 months below average. That's about the worst run I've seen, including during the Milleninium Drought

Warm to hot week coming up.

t
Wow 50mm! We would be lucky to have had 10 or 12mm. Im still sitting on just less than 30mm for the whole year so far.

[WeatherViewer]

Next week looks like a bit of a shocker once you get inland and west. Be mid to high 30s most to all the week. For almost autumn it’s getting pretty unusual.

Unusual?? It's February/early March. Unusual would be what we've had the last two weeks.

Bring on the heat.

Technically it's Summer until about the 21st of March! Going with the Equinox. That's what I follow.

[Macedonian]

And yes as a Horticulturist i get pretty mad about the lack of after care given to municipal tree planting.
Those 3metre tall Plane, Pear and Elm trees that they plant so prolifically have been living for probably four or five years in a production nursery with two or three dripper spikes attached. Then all of a sudden they are cut off from their life support, dragged off and planted poorly on some god forsaken nature strip or verge and left to die. They need to be watered for about 3 years after planting to give them a fighting chance.
On the upside i have seen some great examples of new planting where obviously someone has taken care to select more appropriate species.
Around Royal Park and The Domain there have been a lot of conifers and some excellent natives planted. Far more likely to survive our drying climate. We need to move away from soft leaved deciduous species.

It has been a cool week up here, lots of single digit mins and no max over 20 since Sunday. A big relief but def too dry.
It is never wet enough in Victoria. Even when it rains it is still dry.

[stevco123]

Next week looks like a bit of a shocker once you get inland and west. Be mid to high 30s most to all the week. For almost autumn it’s getting pretty unusual.

Unusual?? It's February/early March. Unusual would be what we've had the last two weeks.

Bring on the heat.

Technically it's Summer until about the 21st of March! Going with the Equinox. That's what I follow.

Yep me too. Good to hear at least on the more person shares this point

[Macedonian]

Quite right. Our calendar seasons are ridiculous.

[Horts]

Traveling the world it beggers belief why we bookmark seasons with the end of a month. Quite ridiculous.

[JasmineStorm]

A good little article on meteorological vs astronomical seasons.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/cap ... db63215a80

[hillybilly]

Unusual?? It's February/early March. Unusual would be what we've had the last two weeks.

Bring on the heat.

Technically it's Summer until about the 21st of March! Going with the Equinox. That's what I follow.

Yep me too. Good to hear at least on the more person shares this point

Thing that stands out is the persistent heat. Could well see eight days above 30C in parts of southern Vic and near the river about eight above 35C. Those numbers are unusual if not unprecedented. A couple of days may fall just short or get just over thresholds.

After such a hot summer and really dry couple of months a long run of heat now will be bad for vegetation and fires. We are starting to loose large trees up here now and big tree ferns