JUST WHEN you might have thought February was going to be a bit mild, this week’s virtual heatwave has delivered a blast from summer past.
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Tamworth actually recorded its third hottest day of the year yesterday, and while the rest of the week might be marginally cooler, so far yesterday’s top of just over 35 degrees looks set to spring back at us again from next Sunday too.
The four-day forecast from today suggests just a degree or two below that official top of 35.3 degrees.
Yesterday’s warm one followed a Sunday sizzler of 34.7 degrees, although the February tops are below the January maximum of just shy of 37 degrees recorded on Australia Day.
January delivered about 20 days where
the mercury topped 30 degrees and gave us an average maximum of 31.1 degrees for the month – exactly what the long-term average maximum is for February in Tamworth.
While some might have felt the heat in Tamworth, it was hotter in other places across the region.
Gunnedah saw the temperature sustained near 37 degrees for more than three hours yesterday afternoon. At Moree it was still 38.2 degrees at 4.30pm and 38.3 degrees at the same time at Narrabri.
And while there’s not much to report on the rain front for this week, Tamworth finished January pretty much on par with the long-term average.
Climatologist Acacia Pepler from the Bureau of Meteorology has reported that Tamworth had 90.4mm of rain in January, close to the long-term average of 80.9mm, recorded at both Tamworth weather station sites since 1877.
“Combined with the second-wettest December on record last month, summer to date has recorded 286.2mm, already above the average of 222.2mm,” Ms Pepler said.
“This is the wettest summer since 2012-13 (292.4 mm), but summer 2011-12 was the fifth-wettest on record with 435 mm; we would need February to record more than double its historical average (68.8mm) to exceed that.
“The current outlook for February in Tamworth and the North West is generally favouring below-average rainfall (65 per cent chance), while there are no strong odds either way during March or for February-April as a whole.”
Across the rest of the region, January was a bit of a mixed bag when it came to rainfall and long-term averages.
Inverell finished the month with nearly twice its quota for January, while Armidale and Moree had more than their average share, but Narrabri, Gunnedah and Quirindi all recorded less than the usual.
Armidale in fact had 16 rainy days, Tamworth saw precipitation on 13 days, and Gunnedah got its 53mm over eight days.