COME Saturday, Hobart should have had 100 consecutive days where the temperature reached at least 17 °C.
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This is easily the longest run of such mild weather recorded in Hobart, where comparable records extend back to 1895.
It is common to have mild weather interrupted by a few cool days, even in summer.
20 °C is forecast for both Friday and Saturday, and the run of mild weather is forecast to continue into next week.
On 17 December 2009, the temperature in Hobart reached only 12.4 °C. But since then the coldest day has been 17.4 °C on 27 February — the hottest was 38.3 °C on New Year's Eve.
The previous longest stretch of such mild weather saw 72 consecutive days with the temperature reaching 17 °C from 7 December 2002 to 16 February 2003.
On only 7 occasions in Hobart's climate record have there been 50 consecutive days over 17 °C — ending in 1900, 1961, 1972, 1979, 2001, 2003 and now 2010.
Hobart's average daily maximum temperature from December 2009 to March 2010 so far has been 23.0 °C, over 2 °C above the long-term average of 20.9 °C for those 4 months, and likely to be a record.
Tasmania has been dominated by high pressure systems for most of this time.
Although there have been some cold fronts to bring cooler weather, they have not been as strong or as long-lasting as is usual.
Mild weather has been seen across Tasmania. In Launceston (where cold summer days are less common than in Hobart), every day since 19 October 2009 has reached 17 °C. Victoria has also had persistent mild weather, with Melbourne reaching 20 °C every day since 9 December 2009.
Overnight minimum temperatures have also been generally mild. Since the start of December, Hobart has had 8 nights where the temperature did not drop below 17 °C, twice the average number of such mild nights in a year.
