Tasmania’s Agfest is enjoying an unusual run of dry, sunny and mild weather this week thanks to a big blocking high pressure system sitting over the Great Australian Bight.

Agfest is a 3-day agriculture field day that attracts 60,000 people to the Carrick region in Tasmania each year. Those attending Agfest usually only need two things to enjoy the show: a ticket and an umbrella.

Agfest is well-known for typically having cold and wet weather at some point during the event. This is because cold fronts usually start to become a more prominent feature over southern Australia in May, increasing the likelihood of showers and cold air outbreaks.

This year’s show, however, is enjoying a spell of dry and mild weather thanks to a large high pressure system centred over the Bight, which is blocking any cold fronts from reaching Tasmania.

Image: Agfest on a sunny morning in 2010. Source: Peripitus via Wikimedia Commons

Launceston, which is located about 19 km northwest of the Agfest showgrounds, is forecast to reach highs of 17 to 18°C under mostly sunny skies on each of the three days during this year’s event. This is a couple of degrees warmer than average for this time of year.

The dry and sunny 2024 Agfest weather is a contrast to last year’s event, which had days only reaching 12 to 15ºC while also picking up 5 mm of rain.

This week’s dry weather continues a run of lower-than-average rainfall that has affected much of Tasmania over the last three months. Between February and April, large areas of the state registered rainfall totals that were in the lowest 10 percent of historical records.

Looking ahead, the Launceston region may not see any decent rain until at least the middle of May as blocking high pressure remains a dominant feature to the south of Australia.