Not in a hundred years....

29 Dec 2006, Friday - A cool holiday....

IT'S December in Queensland and the beaches should be full of half-naked sun worshippers. Instead, the coldest December temperatures for more than a century have forced holidaymakers indoors to throw on a jumper! (Including myself! We had to dig out our jumpers and quilt again!)

Yesterday the greying skies meant Brisbane struggled to hit a maximum of 24C - still well below December's average temperature of 29.6C. Weather bureau forecaster Tony Auden said cool air from the snow-capped areas of Victoria and Tasmania and some prolonged cloud cover over most of Queensland had kept temperatures low.

The 19.2C maximum reported in Brisbane's city centre on Wednesday was matched only by an unseasonable all-time low of 18.8C recorded in 1888. Emerald, in central Queensland, broke a 100-year record, with the mercury reaching a maximum of only 16.7C on Wednesday, compared with 18.3C in 1907.

However, the long-awaited rain has done little to bring real relief to the southeast. No more than 20mm has fallen in key dam catchment areas. But the rain won't last, according to the experts. Weather bureau forecaster Ben Annells said only light rain was predicted for southeast Queensland this week, with heavier falls in the far north.

So, different from previous Christmas, we had a warm Christmas, wet Boxing Day and cold week leading up to the New Year.... Hope summer stays like this all the time!

Excerpts taken from Courier Mail.