Australian Winter 2009 Likely Warmest On Record: Unusually Dry Conditions Persist In East

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While the claim won't be official until data for August 31 is collected from the nation's 850 temperature observing stations, yesterday's relatively warm temperatures across the country should see the winter of 2009 rewrite the record books.

Blair Trewin, from the National Climate Centre, yesterday said that winter had been particularly dry, as well as warm, for much of eastern Australia. Melbourne's rainfall for the first eight months of the year is the lowest on record by 0.2mm. The previous record was set in 1997. Queensland was also very dry, recording its driest July and August on record. NSW's rainfall was below average for winter. Across Bass Strait, Tasmania has been very wet, having "its fourth-wettest winter", Dr Trewin said.

Records kept tumbling throughout August, nowhere more so than in the outback Queensland town of Windorah. Dr Trewin said Windorah's record for the August maximum temperature was broken and re-set six times in the past month. "At the beginning of the month it was 34.9C and it is now 38C," he said. "Until this year, they never had a 35C day in August, and this year they had seven of them."

The winter heat was due to the lack of strong, cool frontal systems from the south. Only in the last days of August did a big southerly bring cooler weather, hitting Sydney on Sunday before moving up to southern Queensland yesterday. The first week of spring is expected to bring a cool change. South Australia's run of dry winters ended with the state receiving average winter rains.

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26009411-11949,00.html