Top End Wet Season 2023 - 2024

The dryest 'dry season' since 1953 in the Darwin region.
My suburb of Leanyer 2023:



Darwin Airport 2023:



Darwin Airport 1953:



The 1953 dry spell commenced after well above average rainfall in April of that year.
The 2024 dry season , both March and April were well below average rainfall, so the conditions/soil profiles are likely much drier.

If not for Oct 6 would it be a record?

Edging closer to the City.... but these things have a habit of disappointing us...
Outflow boundary should kick stuff off. For all our sanities though, let's hope outflow doesn't race ahead of it too fast or it will simply jump and reform off the coast.

11.0mm rain from yesterday's storm in Darwin. Zip at my place.

A bit of activity around the base of the Top End this morning.

Nice storm cell to the south of Timber Creek....

A loud noisy coast hugger....i'm just too far inland for any rain.... a mile closer to Lee Point at the suburb of Lyons its pissin' down.



Frikken frustrating....!!

From a post by local Guru, Pilko:
( source: PCOW FB Page )
"Good morning trendsetters..
It’s been a very disappointing start to November thus far for parts of the NW Top End, north coast and NE and east Top End.
Darwin and immediate surrounds to the east have been farcicly dry and south of the harbour has done pretty well, which is not totally unheard of but is pretty unusual all the same.
This time of year we can probably expect a fair range of totals as much of our moisture is convective and can be rather patchy.
Despite the forecasts of Darwin to pick up rainfall over the last week, it’s managed to dissipate right on our doorstep.
And it’s happened at least 5 times since last Friday, with it seeming to run smack bang into a wall.
This is a phenomena that’s been prevalent for a few years now and I can only attribute to the dreaded “ heat island “ effect.
Outside of the tropics I wouldn’t assume that it affects the weather too much, however up here in Darwin there is no doubt in my mind, that the heat absorbed by the concrete jungle manages to disperse any showers and storms that try and infiltrate the urban “dome”
You would think that heat radiating off the city would aid in convection, as that’s in a nutshell how convection works, however I would say the heat that lifts from our hot city is helping create a low or mid level inversion and that’s very unfavourable for any action.
Outside suburbia you have the heat getting modified by the vegetation and that’s also aided by transpiration in helping get the storms firing.
Have a look at the Amazon for an example on a very broad scale.
Once the moisture levels become deep enough I think you will find it’s not such an issue but at the moment it’s plainly obvious, by my reckoning anyway.
And it’s not something that’s an issue later in the year as rain that does actually reach us, begins to cool the city down.
Monsoonal incursions are not affected as it’s dynamics are a different kettle of fish.
So it’s extremely frustrating but unless we can cover the urban areas in 40 billion trees, we can expect more of the same.
I often think that if we didn’t have a great bitumen strip in the middle of the city called Darwin Airport how different our weather may be. 🤔
And remember this is just my opinion, I would love to hear other people’s thoughts 😉
Now again our chances today are exactly that, chances and unfortunately those chances diminish as the week progresses with a reasonably hot and dryish weekend.
Moisture returns reasonably quickly after that..
However as is often the case in situations like this we tend to get an increase in showers and storms preceding a dry surge. That is certainly something to keep in mind.
So not the best news today but as long as there is a chance then keep positive.
It only takes one decent cell over your head and totals will rocket upwards in no time 😍
Have a great day everyone and don’t study this rainfall chart too much.
It’s rain that’s fallen over the last week and there appears to be a very suspicious bare spot over much of Darwin 🤷🏻‍♂️😔


And some comments from some members:

yaaay... the drought has broken.... 6.3mm at home, our heaviest fall since Mid April !
Heavier falls closer to the City including 40mm in Parap and Bayview Haven and 17mm at the Airport.





It's a warm muggy morning outside...