Tura Beach

Possibly stretching the definition of Mallacoota a tad!  We were planning a trip to Merimbula and Frances found a walk at Tura Beach which looked interesting.  So we headed off, expecting to find a sign to the walk.  That didn't happen but Google Maps were our friend so we had a tour of the area on the way to the start of the walk. 

We wondered about the nature of the residents and the occupancy of houses.  In this case, the Census is our friend, looking at the suburb of Tura Beach.  To begin with, the area looked well maintained and affluent.  It had 3,400 usual residents in 2021, approximately 3x the number of Mallacoota (which was a surprise in itself).  (I don't think the comparison is greatly affected by the Black Summer fire: Mallacoota was well on the way to recovery by August 2021.

• In terms of age of the residents of Tura Beach 47.6% were aged 60+ (Mallacoota 49.7%).  
• 44% of the residents of Tura Beach were not in the Labour Force (Mallacoota 40.4%)
• Looking at Tenure type (TEND), both areas had a high percentage of properties owned outright.  The major difference is the proportion of dwellings with a TEND of "Not Applicable" - effectively vacant dwelling at Census time.  For Tura Beach 14.7% of dwellings had this TEND, while for Mallacoota it was 28.8%.  I think this is a proxy for "holiday house".

The start of the walk was on Headland Drive, on the Northern end of the settlement.  Here is our track, as recorded on eBird.

This is the view from a lookout at '1' in the map

Zooming in to the houses: not many tall trees in the gardens- people like their view!

A rocky outcrop below the lookout.

A view North, towards Bournda.  Any European readers may wish to look at that length of sand: that is a beach, cf the 100m of shingle at places like Brighton in the UK.

The rocky cliff at point 2.

A view of the pool at the end of the walk (point 3).

The red rock here reminds me of that at the headland at the mouth of the harbour at Merimbula (not that far to the South).

The vegetation along the track walking back.

   

Hail, hail, the Gangs all here?

 Following the dramatic hailstorm of 16 November (image by Larry Gray, from the Golf Club)

.... we had another serve, albeit of much smaller calibre on 1 December.  This is our back lawn.

After the earlier event a question was raised about how rain gauges etc handled the hail.  I was able to get a snap of some of the stones in the collector of my weather station (that which fell into my plastic Nylex backup gauge had all melted by the time I got out there).

It is possible that during the earlier event some of the stones bounced out, so my rainfall for that date could be a little understated.  For this event the WS recorded 3mm between 1500 and 1600 hrs, although some of that would have been the rain which followed.  More rain followed through the rest of the day totalling 8.6 mm for the day.

There were a few flashes and bangs around the time of the hail.  

Some more strikes were seen around 1930hrs when a very dark storm passed to the North of us (sorry, I didn't capture any radar images).  The Tempest system I follow recorded 167 strikes for the day, mainly in the mid-afternoon. (As a contrast Tempest recorded 6,941 strikes in February 2025 of which 3,444 occurred on the 7th and 1,290 on the 8th.)

November 2025 Weather Report

Overview

A very wet month (including the hailstorm described below) with temperatures overall close to average (as a result of above average and below average readings balancing out, rather than most readings being close to average!)

Precipitation

There was no snow!

Hail

This is an unusual item for these reports but the hailstorm on 16 November seems to be very notable. The 2 images following were snipped from a video posted by Larry Gray to the Real Mallacoota Facebook group.

The stones appeared to be 1 - 2 cm in diameter, but not to have done a great deal of damage to property or cars.  It seems from looking at the (now long gone) BoM airport data and that from my Weather Station (WS) to have amounted to 3 - 5mm of rain.  

From comments by Marty Goodison and others it appears that - as usual with thundery squalls - the amount of hail varied considerably across town.  By way of example the precipitation recorded at Gabo (shown against 17 November due to the stupid 0900 reset) was 5.6 mm vs 15.6 mm at the airport and 11.6 mm at my WS.  I suspect that the small size of my collector meant some of the stones bounced out.

I'll also note here that my WS recorded a rain rate of 256 mm/hr against 1500hrs on that date. 

Rainfall

There was >0.2mm of rain on 15 days (and 0.2 mm on a further 3 days).  My rain records (back to 1974, including BoM records for the airport) cover 595 months and only 48 of them record >0.2mm on more than 15 days.  The greatest number of rainy days is 21, in August 1992 and October 1976.

The monthly total (160.0mm) was well above the average and last year for November. Only 5 of 46 Novembers have a greater fall.  This was 250% of the median fall for the month.  We have clearly recovered from the dry period caused by the Sudden Stratospheric Warming event of September and early October!

The year to date total is 1174 mm (140% of the median fall to the end of the month).  My pro-rata estimate is continuing to suggest about 1280 mm for the year, implying about 110 mm for December.

The upturn at the end of November 2023 is the result of falls of 89 mm and 116 mm on the last two days of that month.

Temperatures

The temperature anomaly ended the month at -0.23C, having been just below 0C for the last third of the month.

Plotting a time series of the value of the anomaly shows a marked drop in the 12 month moving average as a result of replacing a very high value from November 2024 with a low value for this year.  The trend of that series continues downwards.

The chart of extremes for the month shows somewhat different patterns for the two variables.

Minimum temperatures

The average minimum for the month was 12.1C, well below the average for November recorded at my WS.  This continues the situation for the second half of this year with low minima.

The lowest temperature recorded in the month was 6.6C approximately in the middle of the range recorded at my WS or the Airport BoM station. 

12 minima were significantly below the WS average for the month (of which 7, early in the month, were very significantly below average).  In contrast 13 minima were significantly above the average minimum (with 9, in clusters at each end of the month, were very significantly above the average).  The math (30-12-13) confirms than only 5 days had minima not significantly different to the average: I'm not sure what that means.

Maximum temperatures

The average maximum for the month was 21.9C well below the average for November.  Looking at the monthly series for my WS shows this year as usually a little above average, but November has dropped.

The highest temperature recorded in the month was 28.7C, one of the lowest maxima recorded for November.  Of the 7 years for which I have WS records, ranging from 25.1C to 38.8C,  3 are clustered at the cold end and 3 at the hot end!

13 Maxima are significantly below the monthly average (9 very much so) and  10 are significantly above the average (7 very much so).  Again arithmetic shows relatively few maxima (7) were close to the average. 

Humidity

The most striking take for the daily series is the closeness, for most days, of the morning and afternoon readings.

Averages for both series are among the highest recorded, with is not surprising noting the number of rainy days referred to above.

Wind

My recordings of wind for this month are very surprisingly low.  I suspect one or more of the following is in play here in the last 2 years in particular:

1. something has changed in the very local environment; and/or 
2. Something has changed in the WS mechanism in the last 2 years; and/or
3. An attribute of the wind (eg direction or strength) has changed.  

Unfortunately the BoM have not given useful historical data about wind since about 2010.  My local wunderground sites are largely no longer available.  I need to think more about how to handle this, noting that the BoM data for November 2024 and November 2025 show an increase in maximum gusts coming from the South, from which my WS is particularly sheltered.

Tempest Observations

A friend has provided me access to his observations recorded on the Tempest system giving data on some variables not available through my WS.

Solar Radiation

The chart below shows (1) the highly seasonal nature of solar radiation levels and (2) the very stable level of a 12 month moving average which removes that effect.  The average watts/sq m is 171.4 with a standard deviation of 2.91 (=1.7%).

Lightning

The number of lightning strikes given in this system uses data from stations within 40km of the base station augmented by data from other sources.  I have usually shown only the basic count of strikes (on a logarithmic scale to accommodate the wide variation in the series).

Given the high number of strikes this month (1856) I thought it interesting to show the number of strikes x day also. I have included the rainfall (multiplied by 10 to allow it to stand out more).

As well as fact of nearly half the strikes occurring in one day (8th) it is IMO notable that while lightning strikes are always (in this month at least) accompanied by rain, high amounts of rain can occur without lightning (eg 9th and 23rd).

Getting close to NSW!

 Dale announced that he was taking a tour up the Wallagaraugh River on 26 November, and I thought this was a good chance to add a few more species to the District list, even though a trip the previous Saturday (with 17 expert birders on board) had found 65 species.  So I joined the group on the Gipsy Princess at Gipsy Point.

Here is the route marked with orange arrows (other symbols will be explained below).  The double headed arrow marks the turning point, very close to the State border.  This was not due to fears of a check point, but the presence of a small waterfall blocking the way (after dodging a few submerged rocks in the final few hundred metres).  

This is the view in the upper parts of the trip.  The area was thoroughly burnt in the Black Summer fire but has regrown densely.

We paid close attention to the vegetation at the Johnson Bridge (red arrow) as Black Bittern has been seen there in the past.  No joy on this trip.  However when we got to the point marked with '1' an unusual looking dark Bittern-shaped bird was seen on the bank, jumping up into a tree.

Much excitement ensued as we thought we had seen what the 17 experts had dipped on: the aforementioned Black Bittern.  I tried to log on to the Mallacoota Birds Facebook page (being a caring and sharing person, not gloating at all, no Sir, not me).  Unfortunately my phone didn't have coverage so that failed.

This was actually a Good Thing, as when I compared my photos (and those of others) with the paintings in The Australian Bird Guide it was clear that what we had seen was not a Black Bittern but what we would call a Striated Heron.  eBird has renamed this Little Heron - the detailed reasons for which they demand coin (although it is summarised in this which also contains a number of threats of future changes - an ominous sign that Avibase won't stop continual random changes to taxonomy).  Wikipedia links to the 34 page Masters 'thesis' as the explanation, which is also referenced in the eBird summary.  So poor connectivity saved me from making a public chook of myself.  

That is still a very good bird as the Southern limit of their range is usually around Bateman's Bay and there are only 2 eBird records West of Mallacoota.  They have not been recorded in the District since January 2024.  Another photo.

We had a few sightings of White-bellied Sea-Eagles but they showed no interest in our boat.

This pair were in the vicinity of a nest which had been occupied by young until very recently. 

On Dale's previous trip 12 Azure Kingfishers had been recorded including a bird entering a burrow with a small fish.  We saw none on the way up, but did record 3 on the return.

The weather was growing close to ordinary by the time we turned, possibly accounting for the absence of reptiles on the banks.  One Gippsland Water Dragon was seen in the upper reaches.

Overall we recorded 41 species for the trip which was quite good.  A number of very much expected species (including Lewin's Honeyeater, Pacific Black Duck, Chestnut Teal and White-browed Scrubwren) were among the MIA.

October 2025 Weather Report

 The weather recording in October was dominated by two themes:

1. The impact of the Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) over the Antarctic which disrupted the expected climate drivers over Australia; and
2. The downgrade of the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) website.

The first of these caused the dry weather experienced in September to continue into the first part of October, but appears to have gone away for the last week of the month.  There are some signs that community outrage regarding the second event is having some effect although that will probably not be known until the new Director of BoM takes up his Office later in November.  As this report is mainly concerned with data from personal weather stations (WS) this will probably have little impact on what I have to say.

Overall the month has been quite moderate: rain has ended close to median fall; temperature anomaly close to zero; and wind runs moderate.

Rain

The impact of the SSW (and its disappearance) is shown in daily rainfall for September and October 2025 compared with mean falls (2019 onwards).  This should be viewed against the situation in early September, where forecasters were suggesting that the drivers of the climate (notably IOD  and La Nina) were suggesting a wet Spring.

This is emphasised by my usual chart comparing this year, last year and median fall for months. 

As a result of the good falls in the last week of the month the rainfall for October has got to 93% of the median fall for the month (for year-to-date we are at 135% of the median fall).

The heavy falls in Autumn and Winter mean that the pro-rata estimate for annual rainfall is still holding up at a high level, having passed the annual median fall on August 24th.   

The current pro-rata estimate - 1231mm - if met would be the 8th heaviest annual fall of the 47 years for which I have records from my WS or the BoM site at the Airport.

Temperatures

The temperature anomaly for the month ended at +0.13C after a fairly variable month.

The time series for the anomaly continues as a positive and the moving average is in the same band as recent values (but the trend line is showing a drop in the last few readings).

A notable feature of the temperatures over the month - especially the first  weeks - was the great range of temperatures.  This was drawn to my attention on the 5th when the temperature range was 20.1oC and is illustrated in this chart.

Minimum temperatures

The average daily minimum was 10.13oC somewhat below the average October minimum recorded at my WS.  This continues the cool values since June.

I recorded 8 minima significantly below the monthly mean minimum and the coldest value  - +5.7oC  -was very significantly below mean.  Three days had significantly above-mean minima.

Maximum temperatures

The average daily maximum was (not a surprise, in view of the extremes graph above) well above (+1.4oC) the average for my WS.  This gets it to "the top of the heap" for recent years but still well below the 23.5oC average achieved at the Airport in October 2015.

I recorded 2 maxima significantly above the monthly mean maximyum and  days very significantly above the monthly mean.  The hottest value - +30.4oC  - was very significantly above the mean and the 6th warmest October day recorded (the hottest at my WS was 34.9oC on 31/10/2019).  Only 1 day (27th) was significantly below mean maximum.

Humidity

The chart for relative humidity at standard times shows a very orthodox pattern with afternoon values generally below those for the morning.  In both cases the series show a lot of variability from day to day.

Wind

The daily runs for the month as a whole were quite variable for October. 

Looking at the month as a whole the average daily run at my WS was very low.

I was able to locate the table of BoM observations for October and this showed that many of the observations of wind were from the ESE to S section of the compass, from which my WS is particularly sheltered.  So I believe the value shown is an egregious understatement of the windiness of this month.  This is particularly annoying as I had hoped that the wind direction would be helpful in explaining the temperature observations.

Tempest series

A friend with a weather station near the Wharf has provided access to his data published on the Tempest network.  This includes data for solar radiation and lightning strikes.

The records for solar radiation show a high level of seasonal variation so I have included a 12 month moving average which removes that effect.  The result shows the level to be very close to  constant, with a range from 165 to 178

The data for Lightning strikes relates to a circle of 40 km radius around the site ...

... and includes data from other sources (see https://help.tempest.earth/hc/en-us/articles/360046877513-Lightning-Detection).  The very high number of strikes (6941) in February 2025 cause  some issues in charting the data using a normal scale so I have used a Logscale (Log 100 = 2.0; log 6941= 3.8414 etc).