Sunday, 1 January 2006
EXTREME HIGH TEMPERATURE REPORT
From: Raymond Terrace, Written by: Grant Burgess
http://www.raymondterrace.hunterweather.com
NSW Extreme Heat
~ The Hunter experienced it's highest ever temperature with 45.9°C being recorded at Singleton. The previous high of
45.6°C was held by Jerrys Plains on 25/12/1957. Unfortunately this station has not reported temperatures for the
last 2 weeks.
~ Sydney metropolitan recorded it's second all-time highest temperature with 45.2°C from the airport.Sydney's
Observatory Hill recorded 45.3°C on 14/01/1939.
~ Extreme temperatures were also reported from many areas of W & SW NSW but are far more common in that part
of the country.
Raymond Terrace Observations
~ Sunday saw a maximum temperature of 44.5°C at 1649, and a temperature of 43.4°C at 1500.
~ Previous records included a temperature of 42.8°C for January, recorded on the 15/01/2001 and an overall maximum of
44.0°C recorded on 21/02/2004.
~ The air temperature increased rapidly while humidity levels plummeted with the arrival of the NW winds shortly before
8am. Skies remained clear & winds maintained a moderate strength for all of the day & evening.
~ At this stage I remain unsure as to why such extreme temperatures were recorded over such a wide area. Days
such as this have been observed many times in the past with conditions more favourable to extreme heat in the hunter.
ie the 850hPa (approx 1500m) atmospheric temperature at Williamtown recorded 23.8°C - not uncommon for this
time of year. As well as that the 1000-500 thickness (indicating the average temperature of the whole air mass) was
around 5760m - also not uncommon.
~ Conditions remained uncomfortable until a moderate southerly change pushed up the coast & passed through at 2326.
Initially winds remained only moderate but became strong & gusty when a maximum gust of 60.5km/h was recorded
at 0152.
	Here is an hourly temperature plot for Sunday from Raymond Terrace
	Time	Air Temp	Time	Air Temp	Time	Air Temp	Time	Air Temp
	0000	25.5	0600	23.1	1200	40.5	1800	43.6
	0100	25.0	0700	23.4	1300	41.8	1900	41.2
	0200	24.6	0800	27.5	1400	42.9	2000	38.9
	0300	24.4	0900	31.2	1500	43.4	2100	37.0
	0400	24.0	1000	35.5	1600	43.9	2200	35.6
	0500	22.9	1100	38.5	1700	44.2	2300	34.0
	Hunter record heat
	Location			Sunday	Jan Record	Date Recorded	Overall Record	Date Recorded	Years of Data
	Berry Park (Morpeth) *			44.2	43.4	15-01-01	44.1	21-02-04	11
	Nobby's Signal Station			41.4	40.8	07-01-64	42.0	23-12-90	48
	Newcastle Uni			43.2	42.1	30-01-03	43.1	21-02-04	6
	Raymond Terrace *			44.5	42.8	15-01-01	44.0	21-02-04	8
	Singleton			45.9	43.5	14-01-05	44.8	01-12-04	2
	Tocal			44.0	43.7	15-01-01	44.6	21-02-04	31
	Williamtown			44.4	44.1	07-01-64	44.1	07-01-64	55
	* - Not a Bureau of Meteorology station
	Other areas with record heat
	Location			Sunday	Jan Record	Date Recorded	Overall Record	Date Recorded	Years of Data
	Bega AWS			44.1	43.6	30-01-03	43.6	30-01-03	10
	Bellambi AWS			43.7	35.0	07-01-02	39.0	27-02-98	8
	Gosford			43.8	42.8	30-01-03	43.0	30-12-72	22
	Jervis Bay AWS			42.1	33.0	07-01-02	36.9	28-11-04	4
	Narooma RVCP			43.5	39.4	08-01-69	39.5	01-12-93	21
	Norah Head			43.6	41.4	18-01-03	41.4	18-01-03	10
	Sydney - Observatory Hill			44.2	45.3	14-01-39	45.3	14-01-39	146
	Sydney Airport			45.2	43.0	27-01-60	43.4	25-11-82	66
	Sydney Olympic Park			44.7	44.2	18-01-03	44.2	18-01-03	9
	Ulladulla AWS			44.0	38.5	15-01-01	40.0	25-11-02	10
	Wollongong Ap AWS			45.0	38.0	30-01-03	41.0	05-02-00	6
	There were many other centres to record extreme temperatures that I have not included.
	All data is from the Bureau of Meteorology unless specified