Hooray for rain radar!

With all the doom and gloom of climate change, over-population and the stresses of "the rat race", it's easy to forget how amazing the modern world is thanks to advances in science and technology. On Sunday, we were in the city for a spot of sales shopping and a visit to the Australian Museum. When we went to leave the shopping centre for the bus, we looked outside to see it tipping down. I'd brought umbrellas but it was a bit windy. Should we risk a soaking, or wait and see if it would blow over?

In the past, this would have been a bit of a gamble, possibly combined with some kind of superstitious activity to try and alter the outcome. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I just had a quick look at the Sydney Rain Radar, saw it was blowing over: and we went and got a (very nice) coffee instead. After coffee, another quick check of the radar confirmed that the rain had moved on. Home and dry!

Of course, the rain radar doesn't always tell you what you want...

It’s going to be a wet one!

More rain than Dublin!

One of the most surprising statistics about Sydney is that it has more annual rainfall (~1200 mm) than Dublin (~700 mm). It’s not really something that one tends to associate with Australia - particularly as we arrived to news of raging wild fires across New South Wales following a particularly dry winter.

The reason, of course, is that Sydney also has more daily sunshine hours on average too (mean 6.8 per day versus 4.0 for Dublin) - the difference is that when it rains in Sydney, it tends to rain hard. (The main difference, at least - Dublin has around 10 fewer rainy days on average, according to Wikipedia.) This past week or so has been testament to that - so much so that I felt the need to buy a new umbrella at the supermarket today for the 5-10 minute walk back to my office. (My previous umbrella finally died on the way to work this morning.)

If you are visiting Sydney, check the forecast - and, if in doubt, pack an umbrella!