Weatherzone, By: Sam Brown, Sunday 04/28/2013

It was the coolest night last night since the end of last year for parts of Queensland and northeast New South Wales. Last night was the coolest night since October last year for Taree in NSW and at Winton in QLD, dropping to 7.1 degrees and 11.9 degrees respectively. It was also the coolest night since November in Ballina NSW (11.7 degrees) and Moranbah QLD (12.9 degrees).

This cool night was due to clear skies, allowing heat from the previous day to return back into the atmosphere and cooler air to replace it.

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Weatherzone, By: Ben McBurney, 04/26/2013

Storm force winds and showers are battering Tasmania today, with even stronger winds possible tomorrow. A complex westerly flow and multiple cold fronts are leading to the gales and showers over the state.

The first of these fronts moved through this morning, with winds averaging 40-60km/h over large parts of the state, even stronger on the coast and mountains. Wind speeds have been averaging close to 100km/h at Mount Wellington since early this morning, with gusts as strong as 135km/h at times. Maatsuyker Island in the south also managed to reach 122km/h this morning, while Hobart Airport peaked at 89km/h at 1pm, its strongest wind gust since December.

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Wunderground.com - 4/25/13, Dr. Jeff Masters

Figure 2. The Arctic Oscillation (AO) is a pattern of varying pressure and winds over the Northern Hemisphere that can strongly influence mid-latitude weather patterns. When the AO is in its positive phase, jet stream winds are strong and the jet stream tends to blow mostly west to east, with low-amplitude waves (troughs and ridges.) Since the jet stream marks the boundary between cold Arctic air to the north and warm subtropical air to the south, cold air stays bottled up in the Arctic. When the AO is in its negative phase, the winds of the jet stream slow down, allowing the jet to take on more wavy pattern with high-amplitude troughs and ridges. High amplitude troughs typically set up over the Eastern U.S. and Western Europe during negative AO episodes, allowing cold air to spill southwards in those regions and create unusally cold weather.

Weatherzone, By: Rob Sharpe, 04/25/2013

Anzac Day will be wet and windy in western Tasmania while the east will see patchy rain developing in the afternoon and evening. A cold front is arriving today bringing gale force winds and heavy showers to the western coast and ranges. Strahan has had a drier than usual April thus far with only 59% of its average rainfall of 117mm. Strahan will join most of the west coast and ranges in gaining 15-30mm today.

Northwesterly winds are increasing this morning up to gale force, before the cold front reaches the west in the middle of the day, bringing a strong westerly change. As the front moves across the state it will bring patchy rain into the east during the afternoon and evening, putting a dampener on the holiday.

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Weatherzone, By: Rob Sharpe, 04/23/2013

Sydney has had its second wettest April in 14 years, but the sun should shine every day until the end of the month.

At the start of April many people were shocked by the return of wet weather in Sydney after a warm and dry March. Rain has fallen on 16 of the past 23 days with more than 10mm falling on five occasions. Most of this rainfall has been due to high pressure systems positioned to the south of Sydney, directing moist onshore winds before an east coast low brought rain on Saturday.

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