Darwin's coolest August morning in 72 years

[Mark]

Guy Dixon, Saturday August 23, 2014 - 12:49 EST 

Clear skies have allowed the mercury to drop almost eight degrees below average about parts of the Northern Territory.

An unshakable high pressure system has been sitting over the Northern Territory in recent times leading to crystal clear skies both overnight and during the day.

It is not uncommon for temperatures to rise well over thirty degrees during the day about parts of the Northern Territory at this time of the year, especially when no protection is offered by cloud cover. During the overnight hours however, this lack of cloud cover allows vast amounts of long-wave radiation to escape into the atmosphere.

As a result, minimum temperatures can plummet after the sun goes down.

Darwin Airport shivered through their coolest August morning in 72 years, beating the previous low by just 0.1 of degree (set in 2012) with a minimum of 13 degrees. This also made it the coolest morning for any month since June 2011.

Inland parts of the Territory also felt the chill last night, cooling almost eight degrees below average.

The temperature at Tindall RAAF Base dropped to 7.2 degrees, just short of eight degrees below the August average. Further west, Timber Creek chilled to just 7.5 degrees overnight, the coolest August morning since 2007.

Clear skies and cool minimum temperatures are set to continue with no imminent threat of this ridge shifting. The ridge will steer dry southeasterly winds each day keeping conditions stable.

 - Weatherzone

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[Rwood]

Very warm days though. And 342 hours of sun in August - impressive even by their standards - virtually nonstop sun all month.

[ato2]

That is a serious amount of Sun! That must be close to 95% of the possible? (assuming an average length of day being around the mid month, which is probably 11h 40m? Not sure of that number, though.)

[JennyLeez]

Makes my 80.6 look even lower still.
I guess they will not be lacking in Vitamin D.

[Mark]

Northern Territory in August 2014: 4th coolest on record

Several high pressure systems over the Great Australian Bight this month meant a strong south or south easterly wind blowing across the Northern Territory. This cool, continental airmass kept humidity low and temperature mild for most of the month. The mean temperature this month in the NT of 18.2 °C was 2.0 °C below average and ranked as the fourth coolest August on record. Several sites (including Darwin Airport) set new record low temperatures. Alice Springs' mean daily minimum temperature of 2.5 °C was their coolest August since 1994.

Overnight temperatures were low all month at Darwin Airport. The mean daily minimum temperature at the Airport was 17.8 °C, tying the previous record first set in 2002 and once repeated in 2012. Darwin Airport dropped below 20 °C twenty-six times this month, including on the morning of the 23rd when the temperature dropped to 13.0 °C setting a new minimum temperature record.

As is normal for August, there was no significant rainfall over most of the Northern Territory
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/nt/summary.shtml

[Rwood]

Casually accepting their unbroken sunshine - they need to spend some time in a cloudy climate.

[ato2]

Yes, it would be character building for them!