OT What a Winter!

[Mike Gibson]

Reading this stuff(year after year) makes me glad I live in a sub-tropical climate.

The daytime winter maximums average around 77 degree F,with the minimums generally around 41F.Sometimes the minimum will drop to 37F.Once every 4 or 5 years we'll get one night dropping to freezing point.

The last time it snowed here would have been the last Ice Age.

Sure it can get quite warm in Summer averaging around 90F with hottest days of 104F and sweat your arse off humidity.We have however had quite mild Summers for the last 4 years or so.

I have never seen snow in the 52 years I have been alive.After reading of the inconveniences of the climatic regions depicted in threads like this,you can keep your snow.

Steve, maybe we could take up a collection and send you some of our famous El Nino effect. Which seems to cause the extra snow in places.

[theophile]

Thanks for the kind offer Mike(nice to hear from you mate).

If I need to see snow I'll look in a non-defrosted freezer.

Part of the reason it never snows here(in Sunny Queensland),is that the ocean temperature rarely drops lower than 66F.I have also lived in Sydney for many years.The ocean temp there drops to around 54 and in the mountains behind Sydney(approx 45 miles away)it will snow every couple of years(for a day or so).

We don't get a huge amount of snow here in Oz,anywhere.There are well established snowfields which are guaranteed snow every year(in Winter),with the resorts etc and all which go with that.The vast majority of Australia is desert(most of the middle).Too little moisture to snow.

Have you seen the film 'Australia'(with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman)?The terrain of the outback ranch is pretty typical of Aussie Central landscape.Harsh,hot and a scary place to have a car break-down.People here regularly die of thirst when their car breaks-down in remote regions.Without water,one has about 48 hours maximum.Getting off the beaten track,onto roads rarely travelled,entails the prospect that one may not see another traveller in time to be rescued.

Thus,I suppose one has the prospect of freezing to death,where it snows heavily.Or dying of thirst,in our climate.

The biggest danger where I live would be poisonous snakes(they are very prevalent)or shark attack(this is more possible than you would imagine).The zoo owned by the 'Crocodile Hunter' the late Steve Irwin(RIP)is about 45 miles from where I live.

Throw-into the ring the fact that about 200 miles North of where I live,the ocean is the home of poisonous jelly-fish(reputed to be one of the most agonizingly painful deaths on the planet http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/box-jellyfish.html) and you can see that despite lacking snow,we have plenty of hazards here too.

Thanks for the offer.You can keep your snow.

[dbale]

Cold,snow,they can be good things.Once the weather starts to warm up the vandals seem to come out of the woodwork.

[theophile]

Cold,snow,they can be good things.Once the weather starts to warm up the vandals seem to come out of the woodwork.

Even before I saw the picture,I had a very strong suspicion,that the 'vandals' were of the four-legged variety.

[bfish]

Update... nearly a year later...

Having just gotten last weeks' snow/ice cleared from the main roads, we just got from 16 to 30 inches, all in one ~7 hour dump (the forecast was for 2-6").

That may not sound like much to some of you, but in an area where most counties have a max of 2 snow plows and snow shovels aren't stocked in stores, it's immobilizing.

Statisticians are arguing if it's the biggest single dump here in recorded history or merely the 2nd biggest.

Snow's ended now, just have a couple days of -5 to 15 degrees before anything will move. Fingers crossed for the electricity.

Today's playlist?

Looped Lil' Orphan Annie's "Tomorrow". :lollipop:

[Altec Best]

we just got from 16 to 30 inches, all in one ~7 hour dump (the forecast was for 2-6").

I'm convinced they don't know there A _ _ from their elbow.When it comes to predicting storms.They can get the temperature part right, pretty much all the time, but rain/snow they are off more than 90% of the time and have a ways to go IMO.Our last big storm a few weeks back was predicted for 6"-10" in my area we ended up with 18" of snow. We were getting slammed once a week it seemed like there for a bit.

[Audio_by_Goodwill]

Wow, that's quite a lot. We only got about 11" last week during "snowpocalypse", which is more than normal, but not worthy of all the fuss that was made. Definitely, not as much snow as the Storm of 78.

[theophile]

Steve, maybe we could take up a collection and send you some of our famous El Nino effect. Which seems to cause the extra snow in places.

Update;One year later.

How prophetic Mike....We got that.

2010 had torrential rain during the months of the year which are normally the dry months of the year.So much rain(in fact) during the dry months of the year,that when the wet months of the year rolled-around(and they are absolutely certain in sub-tropical Queensland),the ground was utterly saturated.When the seasonal rains came,the ground had no capacity to absorb/take-up the moisture.Thus late 2010/early 2011 we had one flood area the size of France and Germany combined,with a sideline a few weeks later of Flooding the populated greater Brisbane/Ipswich area.

The writing was on the wall for a cyclone,and in Yasi we got a Boomer.The bad news?Cyclone season has only just begin(yes,we have a cylcone season).There can be no doubt that there may be more.I can only hope that they stay away from where I live.

I'm not going to worry about what has not yet happened.That's a recipe for insanity.

So other than the crocodiles,deadly poisonous spiders,agonisingly fatal jellyfish,snakes which make Cobras look impotent,Bull sharks,Tiger sharks,Great White sharks,when the weather is good(think Winter )Queensland is a really nice place to live.

All sizes | Glass House Mountains | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[LOUDER]

Ahhhhh! Quit with all the sniviling and whining. I grew up in a town where the river caught fire not once but twice, our lake is eire, our tower is terminal, and for the longest time our black mayer was white. And in the winter of '78, I was camping in -15 degree weekend. It will be so cold tonight I hope the "big" girl calls. Keep warm my fellow americans!

[bfish]

...It will be so cold tonight I hope the "big" girl calls...

Has she got any friends with parachute skills and access to a C5A?