December weather blows away Bureau of Meteorology records
If you thought South Australia started the summer with a big bout of wind, you were not alone.
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Forget the heat, some South Australian locations are having the windiest start to summer on record.
Bureau of Meteorology figures show 26 of the state’s 78 weather stations registered their highest average wind speeds for December. The main areas affected by the wind anomaly are south of a line between Fowlers Bay on Eyre Peninsula and Renmark in the Riverland.
Last year, the windiest ever December was recorded at Adelaide Airport, Parafield Airport, Edinburgh RAAF base, and Outer Harbor. Major regional centres Port Lincoln, Port Augusta and Port Pirie also recorded the windiest December ever.
Closer to Adelaide, Roseworthy, Mount Crawford and Strathalbyn racecourse also recorded records for the windiest December, as well as 16 more remote locations.
Bureau climatologist Naomi Benger said that during December there were no records set for the strongest-ever wind gusts at any station but a small number had recorded the strongest for any December in history.
The recordings are known as “mean daily wind run”, a daily measure kept by the bureau that shows average wind speed in the past 24 hours.
“If you drew a line from Fowlers Bay to Renmark, then south of that is the area affected,” Ms Benger said.
“So south of this there is an anomaly of about 1.5km/h to 4.5km/h wind speed above normal.
“It has been a windy start to summer and the wind has predominantly been southerly. But to put that into perspective, Tasmania, which is a windier place generally, has had an anomaly of between 4.5km/h and 9km/h.
“It is tricky for us because once you move further north in SA the weather observation network becomes sparse. It has been a windy start to summer, but, for example, there has been a windier start in Tasmania.”
Many anglers and boaties have noted the wind this summer has been among the worst encountered in recent memory.
One group not complaining about the conditions are organisers of the 2021 Adelaide International Kite Festival at Semaphore from April 3-5.
Kite supplier and Free as a Bird Kites owner Bernadette Maio said it had been a busy start to summer. Speaking at Mt Lofty, Lisa Rognetta, of Netley, and Robert Button, of Semaphore Park, both said they experienced many windy days in December.
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