Feb’s wacky weather
THE hottest weather station in the Geelong region failed to live up to its reputation in a big way in February, never reaching 30C.
Avalon Airport’s record low maximum of 29.6C marked the first time in any calendar month between November and March the temperature did not get past the milestone — something that was easily surpassed on the first day of autumn yesterday.
The temperature records at the site go back to 1995.
The surprise stat contributed to one of Geelong’s mildest ends to summer.
In terms of maximum temperatures, the warmest day of the summer’s final month was February 23 when the mercury hit 30.1C atGeelong and 29.6C at Avalon. Those marks rep- resent Geelong’s second-cold- est February, in terms of both h the highest maximum and av- erage maximum temperature, in more than 60 years.
It also helped drive Avalon’s February average maximum temperature down to 23.1C — its lowest ever mark — which is 3.2C below the norm.
While the temperatures didn’t reach the heights of previous years, neither did it get as cold as usual, with the average minimum temperatures at Geelong and Avalon above average.
In contrast to February, March started with a warm 32C-plus day at both Geelong and Avalon yesterday, however forecasters expected the season would be mostly mild.
Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Blair Trewin told the Addy a pattern of light winds across southern Victoria to start the year, allowing moist air from the Tasman Sea to settle in the region, could explain the lack of extreme heat.
Mr Trewin said that made it favourable for seabreezes to develop in the afternoon. The weather bureau’s latest seasonal outlook extends Geelong’s temperature trend of below average maximums and above average minimums all the way until winter, when warmer than average temperatures appear set to overwhelm the region.
The trend behind the wettest start to the year in almost a decade is also set to continue into autumn.
Geelong has had 157.4mm and Avalon 148.2mm, in both cases the wettest start to the year since 2011. March, traditionally our driest month of the year, is given a 64 per cent chance of exceeding the minuscule median of 23.6mm.