On the whole, weather conditions across Gungahlin during January were cooler and a little drier than normal.

Nights were mild to warm, with an average minimum of 14.3°C; down slightly on last years average of 14.8°C, but a little above Gungahlin’s longer term January average of 13.9°C. The warmest night for the month occurred on January 15, when the temperature was a muggy 18.2°C, while on January 7 it dropped to a cooler 10.2°C.

Days were warm to hot and mostly cloudy, with an average maximum of 28.5°C; well down on last years hot average of 31.0°C. Gungahlin’s longer term January average is 29.4°C. The highest temperature for the month was a scorching 37.1°C, recorded on Australia Day, while on January 3, cloudy skies and a cool Easterly breeze combined to keep Gungahlin’s maximum temperature to just 19.3°C.

Winds at the Weather Centre averaged at just 1.9 km/h during January, with the strongest gust for the month 40.2 km/h from the W/NW, recorded on January 17.

After its second wettest year on record in 2010, with Gungahlin recording 699.6mm, falls to start the New Year were a little disappointing. Gungahlin received just 30.8mm of rain for the month, over 10 days. While this compares favourably to the 6.0mm that fell last January, it’s below Gungahlin’s longer term January average of 39.7mm. Falls in other parts of Canberra were a little heavier, with Canberra AP recording 54.0mm for the month, Monash 61.6mm and Tuggeranong 70.6mm.

Gungahlin’s February outlook: Slightly cooler, wetter weather conditions are forecast for Gungahlin during February. Overall, daytime temperatures should average at around 27°C, and nights at 13°C. This compares to Gungahlin’s longer term February average of 13.8°C to 27.8°C. Rainfall prospects for the month ahead look positive and, although we’re unlikely to repeat February 2010’s massive 104.2mm total, Gungahlin looks set to receive around 55mm for the month. Gungahlin’s longer term February rainfall average is 50.3mm.

If you have any comments on your experiences living in Gungahlin I’d love to hear them.  Simply post a reply…

Many of you who already know my obsession with the weather also know I don’t totally buy this ‘human induced’ climate change stuff.  I guess I can best be described as a ‘healthy’ sceptic when it comes  to the whole ‘Global Warming Industry’.  Anyway, the following article appeared in Saturday’s Canberra Times and I think it sums up my position nicely.

Enjoy…

Massive floods, blistering heatwaves and bizarre cold snaps since the start of the year may not be the result of climate change, but extreme weather has become more frequent, some scientists say.

The United Nation’s World Meteorological Organisation has reported “there is an increasing trend in extreme events observed during the last 50 years.  It adds that “weather and climate are marked by record extremes in many regions across the world since January 2007″.

Examples are not hard to find.  The death toll from the worst monsoon floods to hit South Asia in decades has passed 2,000, while Britain’s recent floods were the country’s worst for 60 years.  Southern Europe has dealt with record temperatures this northern summer in a brutal heatwave.  South Africa has seen unusually heavy snowfalls and the Argentinean Capital Buenos Aires got snow for the first time in 89 years.  Cyclone Gonu, the first documented tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea, hit Oman and Iran in June, causing 50 deaths.

But establishing a link between climate change and extreme weather is controversial.  The UN’s weather agency says its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that “the warming of the climate is unequivocal”.  Preliminary observations indicated global land surface temperatures in January and April reached the highest levels ever recorded for those months, it said.  “Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot extremes, heatwaves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent,” it said.

A study by researchers from the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research and the Georgina Institute of Technology says about twice as many Atlantic hurricanes form each year on average than a century ago.  It blamed warmer sea surface temperatures and altered wind patterns associated with global climate change for “fuelling much of the increase”, the centre said.

But scientists caution there is not enough evidence to blame global warming for recent extreme weather, and there are those who say there is no proof that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.  Barry Gromett, of Britain’s Met Office weather service, said much of the extreme weather was down to variability in the climate, which was affected by greenhouse gases but also other factors such as El Nino.

El Nino events are when drastic changes in sea temperatures in tropical areas affect atmospheric pressure in the Pacific Ocean region, having a knock-on effect on rainfall.  “There’s a danger in taking isolated incidents in any given year and attributing this to something like climate change,” Mr Gromett said.  “It’s really important to look for trends over a longer period of time.  More heat equals more moisture equals probably higher rains, so in that respect some of it ties in quite nicely [with climate change].  But there are many different facets that appear to contradict each other.”

A British Met Office study issued on Thursday found natural weather variations helped offset the effects of global warming in the past couple of years, but temperatures are set to rise to record levels beginning in 2009.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climatologist Jean Jouzel said several more years were needed to establish a link between these extremes and global warming.

Source: By Emmanuel Angleys in Paris. Appeared in The Canberra Times, 11 August 2007. 

When we were originally told speed cameras were coming to the ACT, they were supposed to be located at identified ’black Spots’ in an effort to reduce the incidences of crashes in these areas.  A very noble and worthwhile endeavour.  However, as far as I can tell, the new camera for Gungahlin is not located in a known black spot so will probably do little more than sit out in all weathers taking photos of (generally) law abiding citizens, reducing even more the precious money they have to keep the family going.

I know there’s a simple way to avoid a fine – don’t speed.

On a brighter note, the associated red light camera at this intersection is very welcome.  I think speeding through an intersection against a red light is far more dangerous than going 85 in an 80 zone!

click…    

The Gungahlin Weather Centre began in 1999, and the website a few years later.

I also developed the Gungahlin Region On-line!  A website providing community and business information for people in the Gungahlin Region and beyond. 

Anyway, that’s enough from me at the moment.

Feel free to add to my blog….