Earth Changes

Australia: Cold snap sets new record low temperatures

ABC News
Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:08 UTC

The weather bureau says an extreme cold front has broken a series of low temperature records for Canberra, Goulburn and the Snowy Mountains.

The southern tablelands and Victoria's Alpine region have also been hit by the summer chill.

A rapidly moving cold front from Antarctica moved though Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT yesterday.

The icy and changeable weather delivered a low of -4 degrees Celsius and a dusting of snow to the Snowy Mountains.

Forecaster Sean Carson says the snow is unseasonable, but not rare.

"In fact, it was only three to four years ago they had a 20cm centimetre fall in January," he said.

In Canberra, the mercury dropped to 1.6C, eclipsing the record of 1.8C set in 1956.

Goulburn experienced -0.1C, beating the previous record January low of 1.4C.

The front has now moved east over the Tasman Sea.

Reader Comments

I am 1. · 2012-01-12T03:47:14Z

Cold in Summer

Should I be investing in thermal underwear and a downey jacket?

I noticed on New Years' Eve that it was...cold! And I live in the tropics and am in the middle of summer.

Do you think it is possible that the shift has begun and that Australia is sliding down towards the South Pole...?

I have heard we will be somewhere up near the equator if we shift 40' but I think they have it wrong! Wrong direction anyway.

And today, I pointed out to various people about the suns' change in transverse axis through the sky and no-one had noticed!!

Where do I avert my eyes to?

And did anyone in Oz notice the moon on the 7th? I know the moon has a great influence on the bodies of water here on Earth and if the ring around represents ice particles in the space, will they deposit eventually down here and make for a huge deluge of water which will need to distribute evenly somewhere?

I am confused and bewildered at the lack of duty of care from the powers that be!

Any response will be appreciated.

:-))

Third_Density_Learner · 2012-01-13T18:35:59Z

Believe it or not, but a single record cold episode doesn't meant the Earth has shifted on its axis or that Australia has moved closer to the pole. Just like a record hot spell (which Australia has also had in certain places recently) doesn't mean that Australia has moved towards the equator.

I can recall several unseasonably cold summers in Australia in the subtropics over the last 15 years, just as I can recall several unseasonably hot ones. Weather is variable, as is climate, and one single incident (or even a few) can never be an indication of any trend.

The ring you observed around the moon was simply caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals in cirrus clouds. Since cirrus clouds are always above the freezing level (that level in the atmosphere where the temperature is zero degrees), cirrus clouds will always be composed of ice. Cirrus clouds form over all latitudes of Earth. I suggest you get more acquainted with Google so that you can avoid leaping to dramatic conclusions.

gingernuts · 2012-01-12T04:58:27Z

tilt

not sure on the maths behind it, but yes I think the tilt has started and it is anti clockwise, with England moving down. I recorded 17 degrees centigrade xmas eve and last year under snow. I was working yesterday with no top on!! It was that warm. Not sure how things will finish at, if you read about the magnetic changes in the rocks over thousands of years you will see it is all part of a normal cycle. Kali yuga.

Third_Density_Learner · 2012-01-13T18:41:18Z

If a tilt had begun, scientists the world over would be shouting it out so loud we would all be deaf. Even in a world full of scientific corruption. The reason for this is that it is something that would be impossible to hide or ignore, because a change in Earth's axial orientation would cause a change in sunrise and sunset times, something which many industries depend on, and if the scientists weren't speaking up, you can guarantee that those who depend on accurate sunrise times would. And like I said in my other response above, you cannot conclude the Earth has shifted from a few cold or hot spells. There are so many other factors which can cause unseasonal hot or cold spells which are also far more likely.

adam7117 · 2012-01-14T00:17:17Z

But the Earth has tilted...

...and it was widely reported in the media - it was due to earthquakes, even if ever so slightly. And since then we have had even more of them, some quite strong. Do you think this had absolutely no effect whatsoever? Just the other day, on TripleJ radio station, there was a discussion about how some people's star signs have changed because of this... Different but certainly interesting that it is being discussed in the media.

I am now wondering whether this is bringing on a shift in the seasons - it's a theory and before completely discounting it, I prefer to keep up with direct observation. Christmas was colder than usual in Oz and summer took its time to finally arrive. BOM confirmed that last year was cooler and wetter than the average, too. In the northern hemisphere, winter is very mild but this is now beginning to change. I am wondering whether the worst is yet to come, after a lag.

Climate is variable but if you get more acquainted with Google then you will notice that unseasonable snow is becoming more frequent in Australia. We get this every year now, do we not? And what about the minimum temperatures? Are we not seeing more and more reports about the minimum temperature records being beaten?

Is that not a sign of a trend?

Third_Density_Learner · 2012-01-14T19:10:37Z

Adam, the alteration to earth's rotation by earthquakes is so minute that is had a negligible effect upon sunrise and sunset times. For example, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan shortened the Earth's day by one-millionth of a second, and shifted the axis by 6.5 inches. NASA scientist Richard Gross says:

"Earth's rotation changes all the time as a result of not only earthquakes, but also the much larger effects of changes in atmospheric winds and oceanic currents," he says. "Over the course of a year, the length of the day increases and decreases by about a millisecond, or about 550 times larger than the change caused by the Japanese earthquake.

"The position of Earth's figure axis also changes all the time, by about 3.3 feet over the course of a year, or about six times more than the change that should have been caused by the Japan quake."

As for the star signs changing due to the earthquakes -- absolute nonsense. You can't honestly take a mainstream radio station's word seriously, can you? Star signs do change over the course of the Earth's precessional cycle, which is about 26,000 years in total. It therefore takes about 2,000 years for your star sign to become something else. In any case, I'm supposed to be a Scorpio, but in fact I'm Libra because the sun now rises with the house of Libra on my birthday, whereas 2000 years ago, the sun rose with Scorpio. This is all due to precession, or the Earth's naturally wobbling axis like a spinning top.

I too like to keep up with direct observation of weather and climate. After all, it's my profession. I can recall on December 30th, 1999, that the temperature in Brisbane, Australia was about 15 degrees for most of the day, and it eventually peaked at around 19 degrees or so for a very brief period. On July 27th, 2000, Brisbane City did not get above 12 degrees ALL DAY. 1999 had a very cool spring and summer for Brisbane. November had an average maximum of around 24 degrees, about 3 degrees below the long-term mean. That was 12 to 13 years ago. What I am trying to get at is that we will have cold and hot spells all the time, but unless they are understood and analysed from a long-term viewpoint, they will be meaningless. From what I have analysed, it appears that there are areas in Australia which have had a slight decrease in average temperature over the last 100 years, and there are also areas which have seen a slight increase. And some places have not changed much over the last 100 years.

As for the unseasonal snow increase, I haven't looked into it, and so I can't comment. But what I DO know is that the ski season over the last 20 years has gotten progressively worse, on average. As for minimum temperature records, well I can tell you that in Australia, most areas are seeing progressively FEWER low minimum temperature records broken, and more high minimum records being broken. I am not sure about low and high maximum records.

Ursh · 2012-01-12T16:45:46Z

change is well and truley on the way

I have been saying since 1994 that things are changing rapidly and was told ....
the sun used to set through a gap in the mountains, I had some of my furniture under a window, I had to move them otherwise they woud have stained, also the clothe started to fad if you hang them out in the sunlight, now I hang them out in the late afternoon and bring them in late morning taking advantage of a combination of shade.

I just had the coolest minimum at 0.5 degrees, this is for January which is summer, yeh.. , it is sunny now so won't be to cold today.

This reminds me of the Bolsheviks trying to eliminate the Orthodox church in Russia. It did not make it weaker, it made it stronger. This reminds...

Dwoods44

RIGHT ON SKED IsraHell.!! They just shot Iran.

LindaMay

Imagine what $18 Billion could do to revitalize infrastructure, improve food security and water supplies around the nation. Imagine $18 Billion...

Baybars

No more Kiev in three months Zelensky you dumb shite. Then you won't need a TV to hear Russian being spoken.

Baybars

World War Three in progress. A war like no other. Cyber-attacks, satellite lasers (DEWs), weather mod. It's all happening and the vast majority...

Martin Harris

Earth Changes

Australia: Cold snap sets new record low temperatures

Reader Comments

Latest News

Picture of the Day

Quote of the Day

Recent Comments

Quantum Quirk