Weather for the weekend of 19 - 20 March 2011

Updated 18/3/2010
A high in the Bight is moving slowly east and will lie between Tasmania and New Zealand by Sunday evening. Whilst the high will ridge up the east coast to a small extent, pressure will remain essentially slack across subtropical and tropical areas of the continent, with the jet stream lying above the southern edge of the continent.

A trough in western Queensland will move only slowly east before dissipating on Saturday. Ahead of the trough the air mass is unstable and this will bring thundery rain and thunderstorms between the trough and the coast through Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is already bringing rain as far east as Roma, with Charleville receiving 44 mm since 9am Wednesday.

Dalby has now received 18mm and Oakey 6mm with NOAA forecasting some 15mm for Saturday with light showers on Sunday.

Saturday 19 March 2011
Dalby            26C
Stability         C
Convection    Dry convection to 5,000ft with cloud base at 4,500ft
Wind             NW @ 5kts

As can be seen, the atmosphere is nearly saturated at all levels. There will be significant cloud at both low and high levels and it would appear convection is unlikely to occur.


Sunday 20 March 2011
Dalby            26C
Stability         B
Convection    Dry convection to 5,500ft with cloud base at 5,000ft
Wind            E @ 5kts

The atmosphere is a bit drier than Saturday, but fairly thick high cloud is likely as will be over development.