For the 23rd time in a row, the BOM seasonal predictions are proving to be a waste of time. As Andrew has pointed out many times its better to ignore such forecasts as they are merely geusswork. Warwick Hughes has detailed this yet again.
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BoM Autumn Outlooks mostly wrong again – nights predicted way too warm.
June 3rd, 2011 by Warwick Hughes
Once again 3 months of real weather has shown the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) Outlook predictions produced every month looking ahead three months – are mostly wrong.
In the first panel I compare the Maximum Temperature Outlook on the left with real world weather result to the right. The SE and Tasmania was predicted to have warm days but failed with cool anomalies ruling. The warmth in SW WA was unsuspected by the BoM. Also the focus of cool anomalies in the NW of Australia was also completely missed by the BoM model.
Obviously the predicted cool patch in Eastern Australia would score some points out of the result – but I think on balance a less than 50% score.
The Minimum Temperature result is far worse with the model predicting anomalously warm nights over vast areas of the continent – except for a cool patch in the NW.
As we see in the right hand map, in fact the vast majority of Australia enjoyed anomalously cool nights – exactly opposite to BoM model expectations – and the deepest cool anomaly was over Queensland, not the NW. I would estimate this score at well under 50%.
Note the BoM media release about the record cold autumn, possibly a 94 year record since 1917.