BOM forecast Australian Open?

pigdog's picture
pigdog started the topic in Tuesday, 2 Dec 2014 at 8:16pm

Now I love the bom they have the last word on weather there website is fantastic but.... They are having a lot of trouble with there forcasts I think.... They can't pick up these troughs.....so there forcast for 3 days out can be turned upside down for wind direction....being a keen wave sailer this is very very very frustrating

I just read this snippet in the paper a forcast for Jan 19 Feb 1.
By TIMNA JACKS
The weather bureau has poured cold water on fears that a heatwave will hit Melbourne during the Australian Open, forecasting an average of 26 degrees and just one day that will near 40.

Tennis players fainted and hallucinated mid-match this year during a dizzying four-day stretch of 40-plus temperatures.

But players and fans attending the tournament from January 19 to February 1 can look forward to average temperatures of 26 or under, five days of over 30 and perhaps one day near 40, according to a meteorologist.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Wednesday, 3 Dec 2014 at 7:15am

Bloody hell - two months in advance?

Hmmmm. I'm doubtful the BOM would have issued a specific 'forecast' per se. I suspect that the journo may have creatively used the BOM's climate summer forecast, and interpolated the data for a two week period.

Got a link to the article so I can see the quote in context?

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Wednesday, 3 Dec 2014 at 12:09pm

Just found the article. It doesn't cite the BOM, but "meteorologist Bob Leighton" (who is a long time BOM climatologist).

Interestingly, they have changed the first line of the article too - compare this to what you copied above:

"A meteorologist  has poured cold water on fears that a heatwave will hit Melbourne during the Australian Open, forecasting an average of 26 degrees and just one day that will near 40."

(note the space between "meteorologist" and "has" - this suggests a hasty edit)

However the video in that article (weather info starts 2:35) confirms that the journo did cite Bob quite correctly - he's calling for "5 degrees over 30" (huh? did he mean 5 days over 30 degrees?), and "one near 40 for the Australian Open".

That's a ballsy forecast!

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Wednesday, 3 Dec 2014 at 12:10pm

Pretty cool article on Bob's work last year here too: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/sports/tennis/australian-open-weather....