If you thought Thursday morning was a bit on the cool side, you are dead right. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has reported many areas around the New England experienced the coldest temperatures since last winter.
Bureau of Meteorology community information officer Daniel Hayes says it was -6.3 degrees at Glenn Innes, -2 in Armidale, -1.4 at Tamworth and -.4 at Gunnedah.
“Those temperatures up around Glenn Innes and Armidale are the coolest we have had so far this year, certainly since winter last year,” he said.
“We saw a similar story for elsewhere around the New England; it was certainly one of the cooler mornings of the year, a welcome to winter of sorts.”
Daniel says a high pressure system will probably be the dominant feature for the rest of the week, bringing with it an expectation of slightly warmer temperatures for the next few mornings.
For example, Tamworth’s temperature will be 3 degrees on Friday, 5 degrees on Saturday, and 4 degrees on Sunday.
“We do have a cloud band that is moving from South Australia and moving into NSW, there is already a bit of high cloud in southern parts of NSW,” Daniel said.
“The cloud extending over the northern areas, the New England area, over the next day or two will keep those minimums just that little bit warmer through the next couple of mornings. You are less likely to see frost, but it’s still going to be fairly cool,” he added.
However, the cloud cover making it slightly warmer will “largely clear up by the start of the new week, and create a cold start for a return to work on Monday.”
Rain unlikely next week, overall fall tracking around average
According to Daniel, rain is unlikely around New England until at least the middle of next week, and even then, it’s doubtful.
He doesn’t expect any significant weather warnings for the region this week or next because it will “largely be dominated by high pressure systems, which tend to bring us fairly settled conditions.”
“As a cloud band moves across, it may bring a little bit of shower activity, or some very light rain, starting in western parts of the State today and continuing through southern parts tomorrow, but we are not really expecting any of that to make its way up to the New England area,” Daniel said.
“It will be cloudy, but we are unlikely to see much rainfall, if any at all. It will be largely clear once the clouds are gone for the first part of next week. If there is any shower activity, expect it around mid-next week, but it will be light.”
Many areas around the State have been hammered by rain recently. Daniel says looking at the rainfall so far this year, all centres in the New England were tracking around about average, maybe a little bit above average.
“Armidale is probably the pick of all the spots, 431.8 mls through until the end of May, well past the halfway point for the year, their annual average is 787 mls, they have gone beyond that, they’ve already had some reasonable rain in a few spots up until the start of June,” he said.
“Tamworth and Gunnedah both picked up 80 odd mls around the start of June. For the most part, the New England is tracking well for at least average rainfall for the year at this point.
“That’s what the loner term outlook indicates, we don’t have any strong indications of above or below average rainfall for the region throughout the rest of the year, so we expect to see pretty close to average numbers the way it’s tracking so far,” Daniel added.
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