Well I'm glad that I got my work caught up with yesterday as it's -9C (feels like -13C) here this morning.

We're expecting a sunny max of 16C.

Just before sunrise the temp dropped another degree to -10C (felt like -14C), but at 9am the mercury had made it to 3C (felt like 0C) while the fireplace downstairs that I got going at 7.30am (there was still hot coals in it from 12hrs earlier) now has the whole 6 bays of the shed at a very nice 23C.

Cheers.

It's official- Murray-Darling Basin in 'most severe' two-to-three year drought conditions in 120 years of records.

Every drought is different, but when it comes to the current drought conditions across the Murray-Darling Basin, BOM says it is now "the most severe in 120 years of records".

In a presentation yesterday, climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, Dr David Jones, said that the Federation drought (1891-1903) and the World War II drought were similar to this one.
"The general picture across the Murray-Darling Basin, for droughts lasting two-to-three years, this is the most severe we've now seen in terms of the rainfall totals and probably also in terms of the general runoff into dams," he said.

To ease the conditions, but not even break the drought, Dr Jones said "we need to get, in some places, record high rainfall for the next three months — just to provide some measure of relief".
The current outlook is not good. There will still likely be rain, but the chance of the heavy, widespread, drought-breaking rain in the next three months is slim.

"We know the spring tends to be quite dry," Dr Jones said.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Only 1% of NSW is unaffected by drought.

Non Drought:       1.0 %
Recovering:        3.6 %
Drought Affected: 56.7 %
Drought:          21.2 %
Intense Drought:  17.5 %

Rainfall is down and soil moisture levels continue to decline.
And the outlook over the next 3 months isn't good- Less rain than average, higher daytime temperatures than average, and higher night time temperatures than average.
It's looking rather bleak.

Country towns close to reaching 'day zero', as water supplies dry up in the drought.

Across New South Wales and Queensland's southern downs, country towns are approaching their own 'day zero', as water supplies dry up in the drought.
Ten towns, including major centres, are considered to be at high risk of running out within six months, if it doesn't rain and if water infrastructure isn't improved.

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Grant
Darwin NT

After some early spring like weather here lately it's all heading back downhill now with some driving rain expected tomorrow and possible snow over the weekend (all the way up over the border into Queensland).

Cheers.

Here's the forecast for this weekend in the Northern Tablelands.

Saturday got the weekend rolling here at 5C (felt like 0C) and 8C is our expected max. A partly cloudy day with a gusty westerly wind and a chance of showers, mainly in the west and possibly falling as snow above 800 metres.

Sunday should have a temp range of -4C to 7C, a partly cloudy day with a gusty westerly wind. A chance of showers most likely in the afternoon and evening, and possibly falling as snow above 700 metres.

I'm at 966m here.

Cheers.

Here's the forecast for this weekend in the Northern Tablelands.

Saturday got the weekend rolling here at 5C (felt like 0C) and 8C is our expected max. A partly cloudy day with a gusty westerly wind and a chance of showers, mainly in the west and possibly falling as snow above 800 metres.

Sunday should have a temp range of -4C to 7C, a partly cloudy day with a gusty westerly wind. A chance of showers most likely in the afternoon and evening, and possibly falling as snow above 700 metres.

I'm at 966m here.

Well I've been across to the shop and grabbed some stuff to cover me and Dog for a few days and my 2nd load of firewood for this winter has just been delivered so I can now bunker down for a few days to ride out this Antarctic blast. It's currently a gusty, and gloomy 7C (feels like 0C) outside while I'm pottering about in my large 2 level 6 bay shed in 23C comfort as "Robbie the Robot" (the name given to my home made wood heater) idles away in the corner.

Cheers.

"Robbie the Robot" (the name given to my home made wood heater) idles away in the corner.

Automatic temperature control?
Many years ago when we lived down south we installed a potbelly stove in our house to warm up a couple of rooms.
The inlet air damper had a big coiled spring with a lever and chain so you could roughly set how warm you wanted the room to be. A very useful gadget.

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Grant
Darwin NT

"Robbie the Robot" (the name given to my home made wood heater) idles away in the corner.

Automatic temperature control?
Many years ago when we lived down south we installed a potbelly stove in our house to warm up a couple of rooms.
The inlet air damper had a big coiled spring with a lever and chain so you could roughly set how warm you wanted the room to be. A very useful gadget.

I've seen those arrangements on flue chokes/dampers Grant, but I've never seen 1 attached to the air intake yet Grant, but no it's a fully manual control job depending a lot on how much wood you put in and how much flue choke is applied. 3-4 x 15"x4" dia. pieces of iron bark will be turned into powder in 3-4hrs though tonight I'll load it up before bed and bank the air intake down to 25% instead of leaving it fully open while leaving the flue choke at 75% and that should give me a good 8-9hr burn before needing a reload.

Well we reached 9C (felt like -1C) here today, while the shed's solar heating kicked in for a while getting it up to very warm 30C, but that has now dropped down to 6C (feels like -4C) and it's down to a more comfortable 24C in the shed.

Cheers.

Well that winter blast that hit the southern states from the middle of last week has finally made it up here.
Got down to 18°c last night & didn't even make it up to 30°c during the day.

From here on in I expect things to get hotter & sweatier till the rain finally comes.

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Grant
Darwin NT

It's been an odd, but nice, end to the dry season this year.
Daytime temperatures have been climbing (from 30°-32°c to 32°-34°), and while there have been a few more humid days overall the humidity has still stayed quite low. More surprising is the overnight temperatures remaining around 20°c or lower.

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Grant
Darwin NT

After a week of late spring type weather in the 20-25C range here it'll come to an end this weekend with frosts and mid-teen temps returning for a few days, but that'll be ok as I still have plenty of firewood here to keep the place warm.

Cheers.

Our minimum's are still hanging around 20°, and although a couple of 34° & 35° days are forecast, it's still mostly been around 32°-33° with generally low humidity.
Probably one of the best dry seasons since I've been here (moved up in '83).

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Grant
Darwin NT

Well it looks like that this wild wind over the last few days has blown most of the dust away now (I was getting sick of breathing it while others here where just getting sick) so the sky is pretty clear again (if you don't look NE or SE where some large bushfires are being blown towards the coast), but that sun has no heat in it today (currently it's 9C, but feels like 1C) so I threw a load of wood into the wood heater downstairs and in 30mins the lower shed went from 12C to 25C (luckily the beer fridge is fully stocked as it may get a little crowded downstairs again today).

We're expecting 15C here today (if it gets that far) and tomorrow is expected to be worse with a temp range of -1C to 13C with even stronger winds while it looks like that we will get smoke from the bushfire SE of here Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning as a brief SE change interrupts these westerly winds, but the weather here will warm up again then.

Cheers.

It's looking like it's going to be a horror Summer this year- look at the fire activity in Southern QLD/Northern NSW, and it's only the start of Spring. The short term forecast for rain is none. The longer term forecast is for below average, and the long term forecast (at this stage) is not just below average, but well below average for many areas that are already in drought. And many of the areas already affected by fire are so dry there's little water available to fight them.
Summer 2019/2020 could be the year Australia burns.

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Grant
Darwin NT

2001 was the last bad bushfire season in this area of the state (I moved here just after the fires were done with) so we're certainly due for it.

https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me

If you zoom in on the Northern Tablelands you'll all see where Deepwater is (between Glen Innes and Tenterfield).

Cheers.

For several days now it's been possible to see the smoke plumes blowing out to sea in the visible light satellite images from the BoM.

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Grant
Darwin NT

As I wait for some dextrose to dissolve the temp outside has reached 8C, but it feels like -2C out in that wind in the shade, so I reckon that I'll stay in my 25C shed (yes the wood heater was run all night for the first time in years, mainly due to last night's server problems and GPU's going cold).

Cheers.

After a smokey sunset and sunrise here with the SW change blowing the smoke in from the Bees Nest fire SE of here, but thankfully that is clearing now that the wind is coming in from the east.

I also swept out another pound of dust from the last few days, but that I guess will be blowing back in again tomorrow as the westerlies return. :-(

Also after 3 nights of running the wood heater I'm now letting that burn out and go back to the solar heating (it's 27C downstairs while it's 12C, but feels like 6C, outside) until the next cold snap hits.

We're expecting 19C here today, 20C tomorrow and mid 20's into next week with no sub-zero lows.

Cheers.

We're expecting 19C here today, 20C tomorrow

Our minimums are still down around that level.

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Grant
Darwin NT

It was a foggy and smokey 0C (felt like -3C) start here this morning, but the fog has now gone downstream and we're now waiting for the wind to do a 180 to clear this smoke.

They did get 1 of them fires to the east of here (both about 30km away) out overnight though.

We only reached 16C (felt like 11C) here yesterday, whether that was due to the smoke cover or not who can say.

Anyhow we'll see how close we can get to that expected 20C today.

Cheers.