VIC - Lingering trough then strong front: March 4-8

[hillybilly]

16mm at Ferny Creek, 12mm at Walkerville. Both very welcome. Shame everyone didn’t get a drink

Nearly 20mm at our local AWS. Got some ripper photos of coldies over Bass Strait which I’ll link late. Ran into a great hail storm near Kilcunda. Also bit of snow at Baw Baw where they’ve had nearly 25mm today which will be good for the cluster of fires in that area, though missed the fires further east.

Decent looking trough for this coming Sunday and another strong front for Tuesday so hopefully some follow-up.

[Hawker]

Only follow up for people like yourself HB, in the prime spot.
Most will just have to wait .
hooroo Chris
Er, the growly face is for the weather

[Adam38]

Nothing much here apart from a few drops and a dust storm this afternoon...

[snowfall]

Finished with 6.1mm here. We struck it lucky, as many areas nearby were around 2-3mm. A particularly heavy shower overnight coupled with some drizzle seemed to work in our favour locally. Only reached 16c here today and currently a pleasant 11c.

I agree about the drought not being unprecedented. Certainly for this area and most of Melbourne, there have been a number of other years with very low rainfall in January and February. But the impact depends a lot on heat and whether it follows a period of good rain or months of low rainfall. For us, this year has been worse than the flash drought last year given that last year it was cooler overall, and came after above average rain in January. The landscape is more visibly parched and trees are more stressed this year than last year, with the record heat having a lot to do with intensifying it’s effects. Just have to hope it’s only a shirt-term drought and better conditions come along soon.

[hillybilly]

Only follow up for people like yourself HB, in the prime spot.
Most will just have to wait .
hooroo Chris
Er, the growly face is for the weather

Yeah sucks We sneak a lot of fall here, when it’s marginal. Same goes for Walkerville which is on a 100-150m hill pointing into Bass Strait (and with the Otways upstream which tends to trigger the start of convection which then grows as it crosses south of the Bay Heads).

Weekend looks good in GFS3 and CMC. There’s a very good infeed coming in from the Indian Ocean, so comes down to Synoptics. EC ok, but mainly favouring southern areas again.

[Dane]

Bit Chilly this morning below 10c in most suburbs. Ballarat were I am moving to tomorrow got down to 1.3c this morning.
Bit of a change from the first 3 days of the month when it never got under 20c.
Had my first Rain here for 3 weeks yesterday but it was only 2mm's.

[Macedonian]

First Frost

20190307_080550.jpg (950.3 KiB) Viewed 7434 times

[snowfall]

Amazing to see frosts - it was a heatwave only a few days ago! Down to 5.9c here. No frost, but feels very chilly after having become used to 30+ heat.

[Didjman]

Min of 3.2 in Wallan, no recordable rain

[Macedonian]

It was a rounded -1C in Trentham this morning.
Early frost is often a result of very dry weather.

[Gordon]

Frost here too, or at least in the valley below our house.

[Skywalker]

Chilly on the bike this morning here too, although no frost thank god.
May need to get my hands on some arm warmers for days like this (cold morning, warm afternoon).

The arrival of 6 months of dry, cold, uneventful, boring winter crap is almost upon us.

[stevco123]

Chilly on the bike this morning here too, although no frost thank god.
May need to get my hands on some arm warmers for days like this (cold morning, warm afternoon).

The arrival of 6 months of dry, cold, uneventful, boring winter crap is almost upon us.

I was in Avalon the other day...confirmed why I wouldn't live in the western 'burbs. It's the Sahara

[Macedonian]

Chilly on the bike this morning here too, although no frost thank god.
May need to get my hands on some arm warmers for days like this (cold morning, warm afternoon).

The arrival of 6 months of dry, cold, uneventful, boring winter crap is almost upon us.

As opposed to dry hot uneventful boring summer.

[Skywalker]

As opposed to dry hot uneventful boring summer.

At least I can enjoy the outdoors during the warmer months, with the added bonus of quality time at the beach.
As for winter, well I live in the western suburbs so my dislike for it is pretty self explanatory when you think about it.
If I lived in your part of the world, or HB's for that matter my feeling's would probably be reversed, and I'd become a winter lover too.

I was in Avalon the other day...confirmed why I wouldn't live in the western 'burbs. It's the Sahara

Yep, it's sure is. One of the many reasons why I hate living here. It's all my wife's fault.

[stevco123]

Bit of fun, but very relevant, can you guess which one is Avalon, and which is Hamadat al-Hamrah, Sahara Desert, Libya???

[Skywalker]

Bit of fun, but very relevant, can you guess which one is Avalon, and which is Hamadat al-Hamrah, Sahara Desert, Libya???

Lmao, that's gold. Love it.
I should do a "compare the two" with my two properties, Cowes & Burnside Heights side by side.

Quite pleasant outside now so should be perfect conditions for the ride home.

[WeatherViewer]

Bit of fun, but very relevant, can you guess which one is Avalon, and which is Hamadat al-Hamrah, Sahara Desert, Libya???

Welcome to the Desert Country my friend . This is a daily norm for us out here, in my books it's an arid climate west of the Melbourne CBD most years.

[Sean]

Bit of fun, but very relevant, can you guess which one is Avalon, and which is Hamadat al-Hamrah, Sahara Desert, Libya???

At least there's a beautiful blue sky! IMO, there's nothing more ugly than when everything is dead and brown and coupled with an overcast sky

Re. the drought. No one said unprecedented. But as people have mentioned, the heat has made it far worse than usual. It's sucking the life out of our countryside. 2c above average this summer meant that 'average' rain just wasn't sufficient, herein lies the problem. The two swathes of the county with average mean rainfall are unique. One was an unprecedented downpour, the other is an area where 'mean' rainfall is very low. Chuck in one or two rain bearing systems and you have average in those places. I just wish the drivers would align and give us back some reliability. No drought, no massive floods, just some productive, much needed weather.

Scored 4mm the other night. Not much but better than nothing I suppose.

I'll try and be more positive

[flyfisher]

The first big injection of moisture in WA in a long time - it's a very good sign. Unfortunately it won't link up to any front for us but at least we are seeing moisture upstream air flow for once. Here is hoping for some big NW cloud bands to bring steady rain over the rest of Autumn. Too heavy would pollute the rivers with ash.