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There's a spectacular speckled cloud pattern over the Tasman Sea this Friday, and it holds plenty of good news for those hoping for clear weekend weather on Australia's east coast.
See how the cloud over the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand looks a little like fish scales – as captured by the BoM's Himawari-8 weather satellite almost 36 kilometres above the Earth?
As Weatherzone explains, the speckled pattern occurs when very cold air moves over a relatively warm area of ocean.
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The temperature contrast between the cool air and warmer water causes a large number of individual cumulus clouds to develop over a broad area, punctuated by patches of clear sky in between.
The mix of moisture-laden cumulus clouds and clear sky generates the speckled pattern.
Interestingly, the classic four-seasons-in-a-day weather variability for which Melbourne is famous inevitably occurs when there's a speckled cloud mass overhead.
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Rapid weather changes are less common in Sydney, where the weather is generally relentlessly rainy or sunny for days on end, and speckled air masses are less common.
But Sydney has felt quite Melbourne-like this week with its on-and-off showers, as the Tasman Sea speckled air mass pushes frequent showers onto the NSW coast, as you can see in the Weatherzone loop above.
The good news for Australians on the east coast is that the speckled cloud mass in the Tasman Sea should become New Zealand's problem this weekend, with a clearing pattern on the east coast and all eight Australian capital cities likely to see fine or mostly fine weather.
