Katherine woke to a chilly 9.3 degrees this morning, our coldest start for the month.
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We are almost half way through the dry season and there have plenty of coll starts already.
The Bureau of Meteorology said official recordings, taken at Tindal, show the region has had nine nights under 10 degrees so far this dry season.
The coldest was 7.2°C on June 6.
The equal coolest dry season day this season so far was last Sunday, with 28.3.
July averages for Tindal – (minimum temperatures) 13.6°C (record low 3.2°C, July 28, 2001).
(Maximum temperatures) – 30.2°C (record high 35.8°C, July 26, 2015).
The Top End’s first bout of dry season conditions came early this year, with the first surge of cooler drier air arriving from the south in early May.
The dry season to date has been statistically 'average' for Darwin having had 23 nights below 20°C so far this dry season, tracking well towards the season average of 51.
The last two dry seasons have both been much warmer than average, with just 36 nights below 20°C last year and only 29 in 2016.
During the dry season, BOM meteorologists are looking out for the next high pressure system to move into the Bight – this typically means cooler and drier air pushing into the NT, sometimes leading to fire weather and marine wind warnings
Most locations across the north west Top End have had similarly average conditions so far this dry season, although in the Darwin rural area (including Humpty Doo), the overnight minimums were about a degree cooler than average during both May and June
”In the longer term, as high pressure systems continue to push into the Bight, the Top End will experience surges of dry season conditions until around September, when the weather patterns begin to change as we transition into the build-up months,” a bureau spokeswoman said.
“The climate drivers that influence tropical weather are pretty neutral at the moment, which means the outlook for the next couple of months is for continued near average weather conditions.”