Terry West
THE shortest day of the year is behind us and we are now going into the middle of winter. What will the next month bring? This time of year always sees a run of cold fronts marching across the southern and eastern parts of the country. Next month has potential to see cold fronts and associated rain events over southern and eastern Australia with some rain expected on the 3 July to 7 July, the 8 July to 12 July and 14 July to 18 July.
Rain:Late July should be drier then normal with very little rain expected. Some rain events should move from the north into our region towards the middle of the month but will most likely impact on coastal areas more then the Southern Downs.Temperatures during July will stay warmer then average with only a few very cold days towards the end of the month.
Sub-zero temperatures:
The influence from the El Nino and the warming of ocean temperatures will keep the cold to the western and southern parts of the country while southern Queensland will stay in the low single figure minimums for most of next month.Overall, July will be drier then normal with very few frosty mornings and average daytime temperatures.
Dam Levels: Leslie Dam 24 per cent, Coolmunda Dam 60 per cent.
Weather brought to you by … balloons
THERE are weather stations throughout Australian that are playing with balloons, not your party variety balloon but huge 1.5m monsters. It takes more then 8.5 cubic meters of helium gas to fill these balloons.
The balloon speeds away from the earth, carrying equipment (a radiosonde) which is already hard at work sending information back to the weather station.
It takes almost an hour for the balloon to reach its goal height in the stratosphere at almost 30,000 meters. The stratosphere is the second-to-last layer before reaching outer space. If you were in a basket at the bottom of the balloon you would be witnessing an awesome sight. You would see the blackness of outer space above you and the green/blue sphere of the earth below but you wouldn’t be there for long.
The rubber splits and bursts sending the radiosonde plummeting back towards the ground. Within seconds, the wind catches a small, orange parachute and slows the device’s descent until it reaches the ground, sometimes hundreds of kilometres from where it was released. If you ever find one of these devices, ring the attached phone number.
This process is repeated up to 4 times a day and has done for the last 70 years since scientists first discovered the balloons and the advantages of atmospheric conditions in forecasting.
