Warmest July Day on Record

THE highest day time temperature in July was recorded yesterday in Scone and Merriwa.

Scone reached 25.1, with the previous record being 25 in 1990 and Merriwa reached 13.7, with the previous record being 11.8 in 2010.

However, the temperature is set to go back to typical winter weather by the end of the week.

On Thursday night it is expected to be 13 degrees, but by Saturday it will drop back to 2 degrees.

Felicity Gamble, climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology said the Upper Hunter can expect a higher than average rainfall, at least into spring.

Raining at Scone Mountain today.

“Looking at the current outlook for the July to September period we are definitely seeing a wet signal so quite strong possibility of above average rainfall for most of Australia, particularly New South Wales,” Ms Gamble said.

“It’s likely being driven by a climate driver we call the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), it’s a little bit like El Nino and La Nina which we see develop in the Pacific ocean and that’s what we see from year to year and at the moment the El Nino La Nina oscillation is neutral so we are not seeing as much from that particular driver,” she said.

“But over in the Indian Ocean we are seeing with the dipole, we are looking at two regions and if one region is a warmer than average and the other region is cooler than average it changes the atmospheric circulation where it brings more warm moist air to Australia or it has the opposite impact.

“During a negative phase,  which we are in now we see more moisture being pushed towards the Australian continent and that’s what’s driving this wet outlook over the next few months,” she said.

“It’s not unusual to have higher temperatures during an IOD, because there is often increased cloud cover, lower daytime temperatures, but increased temperatures overnight and that is also part of a longer term warming trend over the last few decades,” she said.

“In February we were still under the influence of El Nino and that came to an end in the middle of May and the in last few weeks the Indian Ocean Dipole has gained strength and it usually diminishes around the end of November,” Felicity Gamble said.