Climate of Launceston, Tasmania
The city is located in the Tamar Valley in Northern Tasmania and is surrounded by many large hills and mountains.
With this type of topography, Launceston's weather patterns can change considerably in a short period.
The maximum recorded temperature was 39 °C (102 °F) on 30 January 2009, with Launceston Airport reaching 40.4 °C (105 °F) on that same day, during the 2009 Southeastern Australia heat wave.
The lowest recorded minimum at Launceston's current weather station, Ti Tree Bend was −5.2 °C (22.6 °F).
Unlike many other areas of Tasmania and as well as a number of cities in the northern hemisphere that lie on the same latitude (such as Chicago, Cleveland, Tashkent, Tbilisi and Shenyang), Launceston rarely receives snowfall and is relatively mild.
Surrounded by many large hills and mountains, Launceston's weather patterns can change considerably in a short period.
The maximum recorded temperature was 39 °C (102 °F) on 30 January 2009, with Launceston Airport reaching 40.4 °C (105 °F) on that same day, during the 2009 Southeastern Australia heat wave.
The Launceston suburb of Summerhill was hit by a tornado that descended from a thunderstorm on Christmas Eve 2001.
Winter is typically the season with the least amount of wind, although the increased occurrence of cold frontal systems during the cooler months have helped cause wind gusts of up to 113 km/h - in the winters of 1949 and 1984 at Launceston Airport, 14.8 km away from Ti Tree Bend.
This passage of cold frontal systems are responsible for winter being Launceston's and the rest of northern and western Tasmania's wettest season.
[11] During the heat wave, 50 separate locations across Australia set various records for consecutive, highest daytime and overnight temperatures.
The exceptional heat wave was caused by a slow moving high-pressure system that settled over the Tasman Sea, with a combination of an intense tropical low located off the North West Australian coast and a monsoon trough over Northern Australia, which produced ideal conditions for hot tropical air to be directed down over Southeastern Australia.
