Australian Bureau of Meteorlogy Adds Two New Colours to Forecast Maps

[astronelson 339]

With a heatwave sweeping the nation and temperatures soaring into range of record heights, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has added two new colours to its temperature forecast maps. The new ranges are 50-52C, represented by deep purple, and 52-54C, represented by magenta.

Forecasts released yesterday made use of the deep purple range in the South Australian outback for the coming Sunday and Monday, but these have since been revised downwards.

An animated gif of the 5pm AEST temperatures for the coming days is viewable here, with a temperature scale that includes the new ranges on the right.

A map with forecasts at more frequent time intervals is available here.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Well, thank god I don't live in Oodnadatta or Coober Pedy.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Wow, thinking that yesterday broke most of the heat records, highest average temperature.

And today I had to put on a jumper because the temp dropped 20 degrees.

Crazy weather.

[Wiimeiser 434]

I might be wrong but it appears no area north of the Tropic of Cancer is above 20-something...

[astronelson 339]

I might be wrong but it appears no area north of the Tropic of Cancer is above 20-something...

Cancer's in the northern hemisphere (Capricorn's the southern one), and it looks mid 30's plus in most tropical places on my screen.

[Wiecher 192]

Deep Purple, nice.

Tropical areas have a very stable climate, and the temperature is around 30 during the day all year round.

See for example the climate data of Darwin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin,_Northern_Territory#Climate

Deserts get much hotter during the day than forests.

And the colder areas on New Guinea are mountains up to 4800m high, with ice on top.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

God save Australia. The news clips have been frightening.

BTW, A desert is defined by its precipitation and not its temperature. AFAIK the Arctic areas of Canada are mostly desert.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Wow, thinking that yesterday broke most of the heat records, highest average temperature.

And today I had to put on a jumper because the temp dropped 20 degrees.

Crazy weather.

Well that's the city of four seasons in one day for you.

God save Australia. The news clips have been frightening.

BTW, A desert is defined by its precipitation and not its temperature. AFAIK the Arctic areas of Canada are mostly desert.

Unfortunately many of the fires are still raging. Many homes have been threated in Tasmania, with Victoria and southern South Australia looking to face the worst since Black Saturday or Ash Wednesday. I certainly hope not..

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I think everyone should now be convinced that the global warming cycle, while it may be slightly enhanced by the stupidity of mankind, is a natural phenomenon like the tides and we should now be preparing to live with it in any ways necessary. If the land is uninhabitable, it is time to leave.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Seattle has milder seasons and the most extreme of all of them can also happen in one day over here (except snow plus heatwave though we have had heatwave+downpour+hail with strong intermittent breezes).

--Ocram

[Wiecher 192]

God save Australia. The news clips have been frightening.

BTW, A desert is defined by its precipitation and not its temperature. AFAIK the Arctic areas of Canada are mostly desert.

True to some extent.

But the polar deserts are not classified as deserts by Köppen.

Not only is precipitation a criterion, but also the potential evapotranspiration has to be higher than the precipitation for the area to become arid.

Because almost no water evaporates on the ice caps or tundras, the little snow that falls is enough to keep the net precipitation higher than 0.

There are deserts that have low mean temperatures, like in western China, but it is always true that during the day the bare rock or sand warms up and that it cools down significantly during the night. Even the Sahara can freeze at ground level.

And we were discussing the difference in temperatures between the tropical north and the desert of Australia and in that context my previous comment referred to the Australian desert.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

True, but they are defined in a separate, hair-splitting category as Group E. However, there seems to be some disagreement there among climatologists.