Mawson October 2013 Climate Summary

Mawson October 2013 Climate Summary

October has been the windiest month for the year so far.  During October we recorded the highest total wind run for the year so far: 38787km! Second was July with 37353km and third was January with 36606km.
This averages to a wind run of 1251 km/day (52 km/h)

Temperatures - at Mawson during October we expect:

•  A maximum mean temperature of -09.9°C. The average maximum for the month was -07.7°C. The lowest maximum was –12.9°C and the highest -02.3°C

•  A minimum mean temperature of -16.4°C. The average minimum for the month was -12.8°C. The lowest minimum was -19.8°C and the highest -06.9°C.

The coldest temperature for any October day on record at Mawson was -29.0°C on 02/10/1980.

Wind:

•  The average daily wind run (the measure of how many kilometers of wind pass the station in 24 hours) was 1251 km per day for the month. This is well above the long term average of 911 km per day.

•  The maximum wind gust for October was 146 km/h from the SE recorded on the 8th. The record gust for October is 208 km/h recorded on 26/10/2007.

•  Blizzard conditions were recorded on 7 days for the month, with 3.1 expected. A total of 39 blizzards for 2013 so far.

• There were 26 gales compared to 14.7 expected for the month, 31 days of strong wind, with 27.7 the average. 13 days of snowfall were observed, well above the expected average of 4.8 days. We had 11 days of Blowing Snow (Visibility <1km).

A Strong Wind day has wind in excess of 41 km/h and a Gale is wind in excess of 63 km/h.

Sunshine

•  We recorded a total of 142.4 hours of sunshine for the month.

•  The long term average is 232.5 hours.

Conclusion:

October was much warmer and windier and less sunny than the long term means. Every day of the month we had strong winds and only five days of the month that we didn't experience gale force winds!

We had a total wind run of 38787.1 km for the month. Total wind run for the year so far is 329,171 km. October was dominated by many days of blizzard, blowing snow and snow fall.