Friday, 1 July, 2011 — Monthly Climate Summary for Australia — Product Code IDCKGC1A00
Australia in June 2011
Rainfall was lower than average across much of Australia, particularly in the southeast and southwest. Temperatures were generally cooler than normal in the north, and warmer than or close to normal in the south.
Maximum temperatures were 0.27 °C below normal (23rd lowest out of 62 years of record). Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory reported cooler than normal conditions, whilst the remaining states were warmer than normal.
Cooler than average daytime temperatures were experienced across most of northern Australia. In particular, the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and adjacent parts of the Northern Territory, recorded maximum temperatures up to 4 °C below normal. Warmer than average daytime temperatures were experienced in southwestern and southeastern Australia (up to 2 °C warmer than normal in places).
Nationally, minimum temperatures were 1.16 °C below normal (8th lowest on record). All states and territories reported cooler than average night time temperatures, except Tasmania which was close to average.
Northern Australia was significantly cooler than average, with parts of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia more than 5 °C cooler than normal. Much of this area experienced lowest on record minimum temperatures. The Northern Territory overall recorded its coldest June on record for minimum temperature with an anomaly of −2.95 °C (previous record was −2.30 °C). Southern Western Australia was warmer than average, as were small areas along the south and southeast coasts of Australia.
|Areal average temperatures|
|Maximum Temperature||Minimum Temperature|
(out of 62)
(out of 62)
|New South Wales||46.5||+0.84||19||−0.29|
|Northern Territory||8||−1.50||1||−2.95||Lowest on record; Previous record − 2.30 (1977)|
*Anomaly is the departure from the long-term (1961-1990) average.
Rainfall averaged over Australia was 17% lower than normal (36th driest out of 112 years of record). Most states and territories recorded lower than their mean rainfall, with the exception of Tasmania and the Northern Territory which recorded above average rainfall.
Higher than average falls were recorded across central Australia, southeast Western Australia, Tasmania, the northern coast of New South Wales and the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory. High rainfall along the northern coast of New South Wales was caused by an East Coast Low located near the coast between the 13th and 17th of June. Below average rainfall was recorded across most of southeastern Australia (excluding Tasmania), southwestern Australia and parts of northern Australia. Small areas within these regions recorded their lowest June rainfall on record.
|Areal average rainfall|
(out of 112)
|New South Wales||47||34.1||−12%|
|Murray-Darling Basin||8||16.9||−50%||Lowest since 1986|
*The mean is calculated for the 1961-1990 reference period.
|Australian weather extremes in June 2011|
|Hottest day||34.4 °C at Noonamah (NT) on the 26th|
|Coldest day||−4.1 °C at Mount Hotham (Vic) on the 7th|
|Coldest night||−13.0 °C at Charlotte Pass (NSW) on the 28th|
|Warmest night||25.5 °C at Coconut Island (Qld) on the 7th|
|Wettest day||250.0 mm at Woolgoolga (NSW) on the 14th|
The Monthly Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in Australia using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated.
This statement has been prepared based on information available at 2pm EST on Friday 1 July 2011. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available, especially for rainfall where much more data becomes available as returns are received from volunteers.
Long-term averages in this statement and associated tables are for the period 1961 to 1990 unless otherwise specified.
In the tables, fractional ranks denote tied values.
A new area-averaging method was adopted for rainfall in May 2009. Current and historical totals for Tasmania are substantially higher than under the old scheme, but differences for other states, and nationally, are negligible. The rankings and departures from mean shown here use the new method.