Coldest April night record broken twice in Hughenden and Maryborough in Queensland – various cold night records scattered across Australia through May too

The Courier Mail reported 22nd April – Several Queensland towns hit record low April temperatures.
Hughenden Airport broke the coldest night record including the Post Office – on the 22nd April – and then broke that again on the 27th.
Maryborough saw the same pattern with 6.2°C on 22nd and 5.5 on the 27th both breaking the previous record from 1966. Clermont Airport broke the Post Office record with 4.3 on the 27th – the Post office saw 4.6 in April 1999.
On April 30th Kulgera in southern NT had a record April low of 1.5.
Alice Springs on 1st May hit 1.6 making it the coldest 1st of May since 1881 or whenever the Post Office commenced.
On the 14th Eyre in WA hit -2.5 a record low.
The Courier Mail reports on the 14th – Brisbane wakes up to chilly morning as southerly change pushes dry air and cold winds
On the 15th Tamworth AP read -4.5 a record low.
On the 16th Broome AP read 7.7 an equal record low.
On the 16th West Roebuck (near Broome) read 5 smashing the previous record of 7.
On the 16th Marble Bar read 7.5 smashing the previous record of 9.4.
On the 25th Newman AP daily max 14.7 smashing the previous record of 16.
Imagine the BoM media releases if the above were all warm April & May records.
If anybody knows of other records – comment or email them – thanks.

2011 Grantham floods – how significant were breaches in the sand quarry wall

I saw the 60 Minutes segment on the 2011 Grantham floods last Sunday where they
raised again the issue that a wall at a local sand quarry breached which they say caused the loss of life at Grantham. This issue has been discussed for years – just google “quarry wall near grantham”. I have not read earlier reports but it surprises me that a matter involving simply ascertainable engineering matters such as volume of trapped water – height of the wall and nature of the breaches – would not have been reported on with some certainty in terms of flood effects on Grantham.
I posted on this in 2011 – Toowoomba flash flood shambles – and reading comments which ran for over a month – there is no mention of this sand quarry.
I have found a map of the quarry – exhibit 359 at the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry 2011 – The copy I took needed lightening – the pdf has rather a dark image – the map goes with exhibit 358. More recent map I just obtained from GoogleEarth – the flooded quarry is obvious inside that loop in Lockyer Creek just north of the end of the word Carpendale.
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In months to come we will see what the new inquiry brings.
Recent flooding in the Hunter with loss of life at Dungog shows that although the BoM get rain telemetry in real time – and allied with historic hydrology data should be able to highlight areas of danger – our modern and technology rich society at times can not produce useful warnings against effects of flash flooding.

Increasing bank ripoffs exposed in differences between Visa Card purchase rates and RBA cash interest rate

A reader has sent me a spreadsheet that amazed me when I got around to examining the data. We have all been aware of occasional media reporting of high credit card interest rates compared to the RBA cash rate and we see the rates near 20% on our card statements. For example – The $2 billion credit card ripoff – and from two years ago – Big banks in credit card gouge
Until I plotted the data for myself I had no idea that the banks have been increasing the difference between the interest they charge on cards compared to the RBA cash rate over the years.
Note how both the ANZ and CBA Visa Card rates stay near 20% and very near one another as the RBA cash rate reduces.

But this chart of the two differences leaves no doubt as to what is happening.

The Government should move to increase real competition in our retail banking sector – these charts show there is no competition. When I last looked banks were big contributors to political parties.
I would appreciate people sending me data from other credit cards and the other two banks. Enter columns into a csv file or old xls please – not new fangled xlsx. If you are concerned at these ever increasing credit card interest rates lease send this information on to wherever it may help.

Greens ask the BoM Director Dorothy Dix questions at Senate estimates hearing which highlights that no MP’s have the guts to ask the BoM serious questions

The Canberra Times has this story – Bureau of Meteorology rejects Maurice Newman’s climate claims – recounting how Greens Senator Larissa Waters lobs the BoM Director Vertessy a series of Dorothy Dix questions that he can bat away.
It is truly disgusting that no MP ever questions the BoM in depth on for example say the ACORN adjusted temperature data.

Example where the Australian Bureau of Meteorology is told about a fault in rain recording but in two years fail to correct their data

I was told by a reader about a loss of ~18mm rain recorded at Montague Island Lighthouse 69017 (NSW south coast near Narooma) on 6/7th April 2013. I checked this out and sure enough the 30 minute data shows 20.6mm at 2.30am on the 7th which at 3am is reset to 2.2mm – so 18.4mm of rain was lost in what must have been an electrical/electronic fault. I kept the www page of 30 minute data.

I sent the following fax to BoM Sydney on 9 May 2013 and never got a reply.
[MONTAGUE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE ID: 069017 Rainfall 7 April 2013
Dear Manager,
Your webpage “Latest Weather Observations for Montague Island”
www.bom.gov.au/products/IDN60801/IDN60801.94939.shtml
records around 18.8mm rain ~10.30am to 11am on Saturday 6th April.
There was another 1.6mm recorded ~9.30-10pm that evening making 20.4mm.
A further 0.2mm made the total 20.6mm around midnight.
Then at 3am on the 7th the rain total reset to 2.2mm which was the 9am total recorded.
You can check the Canberra radar archive at –
www.oscilmet.com.au
and there were rain signatures at “~10.30am to 11am on Saturday 6th April” and
“~9.30-10pm that evening”.
So perhaps your Montague Island telemetry has lost 18.4mm of rain in the signal somewhere.
All the best,]
Checking daily rain for station 069017 at Climate Data Online we see that 2.2mm is recorded for the 7th April 2013 –

What would it take to get the BoM to correct an error ?

Media beat up about drought in western Queensland – forum in Longreach – not a word about rainfall history

Western Queensland community turns out for drought forum in Longreach
The chart shows there have been worse droughts in the 120 odd years of rain history at Longreach. So why would anybody be surprised at recent low rainfall?

You can make droughts maps for various periods out to three years at the BoM.

French Antarctic research discussing solar signals in sea ice data over the last 11,000 years.

This is a fascinating example of a taboo climate subject we seldom hear from IPCC compliant science sources – quietly leaking out in Abstracts and presentations from the the COMNAP Sea Ice Challenges Workshop held in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on 12-13 May 2015. I have only had time to read the top two presentations by the Chinese and the French.
A quote from the French Abstract – [Variations in both sea ice proxies, SOI and SAM present periodicities similar to solar activity cycles Gleissberg  and Suess cycles) showing an influence of solar activity on atmospheric and  oceanic circulation through the modulation of the SOI and SAM.] The sea ice proxies they ref to are derived from diatoms in sea floor sediment cores. Diatoms live near the ocean surface and when they die their minute siliceous skeletons contribute to the sea floor sediment.
SOI is of course the Southern Oscillation Index and SAM is the Southern Annular Mode. And we are told that carbon dioxide is the dominant cause of changes in climate.