Spring rain totals were “well below average” for the state’s North East, the Bureau of Meteorology say.
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Bureau climatologist Ian Barnes-Keoghan said the high-pressure system sitting over the Tasman Sea was “dragging” warm weather towards Tasmania.
“We really didn’t see great rainfall. There were a couple of spectacular rainfalls and thunderstorms and heavy showers here and there, but for totals for the whole period in spring and November rainfall was generally below average,” Mr Barnes-Keoghan said.
He said 2017’s spring was one of the warmest Tasmania had ever seen. Temperatures were 1.13 degrees warmer than the previous record set in 2005.
“[With] most of that coming from the very warm November,” he said.
“We’ve absolutely shattered the records for November for many parts of the state.”
The state’s mean maximum temperature was second only to 1914.
Mr Barnes-Keoghan said spring had been an “interesting season” because of September’s cool month.
”We saw things like Hobart having six consecutive days over 26 [degrees]. That actually equals the record … for mild weather at any time of the year,” he said.
“[It was] not particularly hot, we got to 34 [degrees] a couple of times at a few sites. It wasn’t exceptionally hot on individual days, but it was long runs of very warm days.”
Launceston had nine consecutive days above 25 degrees.
“It was also night time temperatures. For example, Hobart had five nights in a row where the temperature didn’t go below 15 [degrees],” Mr Barnes-Keoghan said.
Eddystone Point had its warmest night on record in November, with the record not being topped in more than 100 years.
While summer won’t get off to a great start, Mr Barnes-Keoghan said the season would be “above average”.
“Temperatures heading in to summer will be normally increasing. Although, November’s temperatures were similar to those that we might normally get during summer,” he said.
On Friday, 25 millimetres of rain fell in some parts of the state, causing chaos on the state’s roads.
“For the short term we’re going to see some quite remarkably different weather over the next couple of days. But looking beyond that we have very warm sea surface temperatures around the state,” he said.
Tasmania Police said Friday’s weather caused a “multitude of crashes”.
Emergency services attended about 10 crashes on Friday, with at least two being deemed serious.
Tasmania Police urged motorists to drive to the conditions.