Crikey it’s wet

[nomadpete]

That's odd Will. I use Firefox on my android phone and on my linux laptop. No problem accessing BOM. Never had to change any settings.

Maybe it is tempramental

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, nomadpete said:

That's odd Will. I use Firefox on my android phone and on my linux laptop. No problem accessing BOM. Never had to change any settings.

Maybe it is tempramental

I've got Windows so it would be a different version of Firefox than what you have for your two operating systems. That could explain the difference. It seems to be some conflict around Bom's security certificate and Firefox's HTTPS redirect to HTTP. It's been a common problem for a lot of Firefox users since version 91. The fix I found on the web is clumsy, but at least it works. After the initial procedure, going back to the BOM website within the same Firefox session is no problem - it connects straight away as it should.

[red750]

14 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Bunch a whingers!

I guess it's all a matter of what you are used to. Like the Poms calling heatwave for anything over 30°C.

 

Reported on the news this morning that this is the coldest weekend in Melbourne in two decades.

[spacesailor]

Melbourne's coldest day !.

Does it mean. The  "  climate change. "  has Peaked  .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

I used to have ice on my dam you could walk on at the edges and the pipes froze in my walls Frosts till end November and again at start of February. Calder highway would be frozen through the Black Forest.  NOTHING like THAT is happening  these days. Forget the $#!T you read in the Papers..  Nev

[nomadpete]

We should't generalise about local weather. Australia is a big lump and nothing is certain.

 

Coming to Tassie from Queensland I expected to find the place semi antarcticly cold.

 

I went to the plumbing supply shop for insulation to put on the garden stand pipes. They scoffed "Why would you want that?".

They laughed when I said that we get split pipes on frosty mornings in Queensland. They didn't believe that minus 5 degrees and split water pipes is common in winter on The Downs.

 

Now I found that here in southern Tassie it rarely drops beyond zero. Even when it snows! And cracked water pipes are almost unheard of.

 

Who would have thought that my Queensland winters were always colder than Tasmania?

 

 

 

 

[willedoo]

Stanthorpe and Oakey seem to consistently have the coldest minimum winter tempertures in Queensland, commonly -4 or -5. That's official recordings. A mate who has a farm near Stanthorpe told me he's recorded -15.

[facthunter]

Stanthorpe is cold all right, but minus 15 will split 8" trunk diameter trees. Nev

[willedoo]

I recon that -15 must have had some wind chill input.

[Old Koreelah]

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Stanthorpe is cold all right, but minus 15 will split 8" trunk diameter trees. Nev

I grew up just east of Stanthorpe and vividly remember bitterly cold winters, wild westerlies and deep frost and occasional sleet.

 

I suspect one reason Tassie has milder winters is the maritime influence; water doesn’t change temperature nearly as much as the land does.

The relatively warm air off the Southern Ocean doesn’t pass over very much cold land before it gets to NP’s place. The wild south westerlies we copped at the farm came from the same ocean, but crossed hundreds of km of cold inland before they assaulted us.

[willedoo]

Stanthorpe is a bit deceptive with it's altitude as well, being quite a bit higher than Toowoomba. Because Toowoomba is perched right on the edge of the range, you get an idea of it's height, but driving to Stanthorpe the country rises so gradually that you don't realise it's so much higher.

[willedoo]

It's been a long time since I've seen or heard of cattle troughs with a thick sheet of ice on top until 10.00am in the morning. Probably last century when I last heard of it. Although there was one of those arctic wind cold snaps in S.E. Queensland in July 2015; I was just south of Toowoomba at the time and it only got to a maximum of +4, with sleet in the afternoon.

 

I remember my dad telling me a story about a particular sheep/cattle dog he had. Every time they would come back from up the paddocks, the dog (who was on foot) would always jump in this big long cattle trough to cool down. On this one day, he leapt up on to the end of the trough which still had a layer of ice on top, and skated almost the full length due to his momentum. My dad said the look on the dog's face was priceless.

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

I grew up just east of Stanthorpe and vividly remember bitterly cold winters, wild westerlies and deep frost and occasional sleet.

It's an unusual border arrangement around there. There's places where you can live in Queensland and have NSW due north of you.

 

Cottonvale area in NSW has Queensland west, north and east of it.

Edited May 8, 2023 by willedoo

[facthunter]

Still room to  escape is there?  Nev

[red750]

I thought Queensland was beautiful one day, perfect the next.

[kgwilson]

NZ is a lot like Tassie. Surrounded by sea it rarely gets very cold near the coast where most people live. Frosty mornings in Winter but not enough to freeze water pipes. It has been said that NZ is caught in perpetual Spring. The mountains in the South and surrounding areas get snow and there used to be natural ice skating lakes but they have not frozen over for a long time now. The huge land mass here makes for some big extremes in temperature right up in to the tropics

[nomadpete]

14 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

The relatively warm air off the Southern Ocean doesn’t pass over very much cold land before it gets to NP’s place

Whilst it is true that Tassie and NZ are located in the roaring forties, that does not mean the wind just comes from the bottom of sunny Africa.

 

The progression of lows travelling east just below us, bring strong southerlies directly up from antarctica, which is anything but mild. Luckily we do have warmish water brought down from Queensland by the East Coast Current on our right hand side. But by the time we get it the water aint tropical no more - only the keenest swimmers frolic in 12 degree ocean

 

PS  Crikey it's wet!

 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by nomadpete
Added more rambling

[onetrack]

Here's an update to the Fitzroy Bridge disaster. The W.A. Govt and Main Roads W.A., backed by some pretty competent and efficient contractors - and aided by a massive injection of funds -  have almost completed the all-new Fitzroy River Bridge. It will be opened and fully operational well before Christmas.

 

Here's a link to the MRWA site. There's a pile of photos, plus numerous YooToob videos (nearly all of them, aerial shots, from drones and choppers) on the site, to give you a grasp of the enormous damage caused by the biggest-ever flood of the Fitzroy River - and the speed and amazing work involved in the new bridge construction.

It wasn't just the bridge either - kms and kms of embankments were washed away and had to be rebuilt, higher and stronger. The new bridge is wider, higher, and built to withstand a 1 in 200 year flood. The project has been completed more than 6 months ahead of schedule.

 

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/projects-initiatives/all-projects/regional/new-fitzroy-river-bridge/

 

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/travel-information/driving-in-wa/kimberley-flood-response/

 

Scroll down to "Media Centre" at the bottom of the last page, and then click on "Photos" and "Videos". The videos show the original damage best, the photos show the repair and reconstruction.

 

The new bridge is being built on the Westernmost bank and then incrementally launched across the River in sections, quite a unique style of bridge building for this region, although it has been done before in more heavily populated areas.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by onetrack

[red750]

[facthunter]

Variety is the spice of life. We're FULL anyhow so don't come. Nev

[red750]

I've lived here almost all of my life. As an example of the above cartoon, the other day I was shopping at Coles. As I came out of the checkout, I looked out the door and it was teaming down. I thought, how will I get to the car without an umbrella? By the time I got to the door, it had stopped.

[facthunter]

The S/W of Tassie is the place for sudden weather changes. Adelaide gets tar melting hot. Perth is famous forwind and Darwin has little max temp change over the whole year. I've never seen it over 36.. The Kimberly is the most likely place to reach a very hot temp.. Nev

[spacesailor]

Wellington NZ .

We had Snow in the morning,  Rain before lunchtime,  Sunshine for an hour, Then 

the Gale hit , and the temperature went below Freezing overnight. 

A great Summer .

spacesailor

[red750]

That's nearly every day in Melbourne, Spacey.

[facthunter]

We got snow in Brunswick about 36 years ago, but that's not yesterday. . Go to Europe if you want cold or Canada. What a pack of softies. IF it's 24 in Brisbane the cabbie puts the heater on.  Nev