Friendly Friday Blog Challenge – Weather – Something to Ponder About

Extreme Weather Events

It’s a strange coincidence that Sandy chose “weather,” for the prompt for this fortnight’s Friendly Friday challenge, as my corner of Australia experienced several extreme weather events over the last day or so. Signs of climatic change? Freak weather events? Who’s to say?

Typically, the weather in my region is picture postcard stuff. Summer and winter.

N.B.PeNdantry – above are the photos I deleted on your “random raid” on my blog post on Tangalooma, Moreton Island which you wanted to see.

October brings a burst of humidity to our region, but no one expected three tornadoes in one day, or even one tornado – that’s nothing like our usual October day! This is not Tornado Alley, USA. We just don’t get tornadoes here; unless you count the one I remember happening 45 years ago?

Springtime in the sub-tropics invariably brings rain, electrical thunderstorms and lightning, and occasionally, hailstones. The hail received in some parts of our state yesterday was extraordinary, breaking all existing weather records.

Can you imagine balls of ice bigger than your fist, hitting your head at an estimated 100 km an hour? I feel bad for any livestock, grazing without shelter in the paddocks!

Here’s a video impression taken by a motorist in the area worst affected by the storm.

Aside from the extreme weather events and possible climate change, Sandy’s prompt reminded me of times spent at Coolangatta, a city straddling the southern border of our state, Queensland and the neighbouring state of New South Wales. It was a favoured Easter haunt for us, until Covid intervened and the border was closed.

At Easter, the lunar cycle that accompanies the Full Moon heralds the onset of the Australian winter and a drop in the average daily temperatures, which won’t rise again until around the middle of August. (If you can call the weather we have here winter, at all). Thanks to gravitational forces, it’s also a time when the ocean can be wild!

“Spring” Tides

Tides are long-period waves that roll around the planet as the ocean is “pulled” back and forth by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun as these bodies interact with the Earth in their monthly and yearly orbits.
During full or new moons—which occur when the Earth, sun, and moon are nearly in alignment—average tidal ranges are slightly larger. The moon appears full when the Earth is between the moon and the sun. In both cases, the gravitational pull of the sun is “added” to the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth, causing the oceans to bulge a bit more than usual. This means that high tides are a little higher and low tides are a little lower than average.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/springtide.html

If you enjoy turbulent, volatile waves and pounding beach breaks, triggered as they often are, by the full moon and cyclonic activity in the Pacific Ocean, then Coolangatta at Easter-time, is the place for you. While it’s not for the faint-hearted swimmer, the spectacular swells attracts many surfer dudes, looking for a big wave.

Blue skies generally prevail through the Easter break, unless you’ ve chosen to spend the holiday camping somewhere, in a tent. Then it is pretty much guaranteed to rain over the Easter holiday break!

The Australian in me takes sunshine, beaming down from a cloudless sky, almost for granted. Australians are notorious for complaining loudly about the weather, if they live through three days of rain, in a row! And yet, in channelling my inner Viking, I find delight in a brooding dark sky, the muffled patter of falling snow or a refreshing shower of rain.

Despite its reputation for wet weather and wind, the Norwegian weather Gods have, on occasions, surprised me with Aussie-blue skies, fringed of course with those ever-present mesmerizing mountains, dusted with typical Nordic snow. Like this:

Do you have something to say about the weather in your area? Have you noticed significant changes or extreme weather events?

Join in with the Friendly Friday challenge by posting a story, photo gallery or blog post based on the theme, which runs for the next two weeks at Sandy’s blog. Full instructions can be found at The Sandy Chronicles.