Thursday, 1 June 2006

MONTHLY CLIMATE SUMMARY - SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL OFFICE

Cool and Dry for May and Autumn in SA.

May Rainfall

Agricultural Districts:
Rainfall totals over the Agricultural Districts were generally below average. Isolated pockets of very much below average rainfall were confined to the border of the northern agricultural areas abutting the Pastoral Districts. Much of the Upper and Lower North, Central, Murray Valley, Murray Mallee and Upper Southeast Districts recorded near average rainfall totals. An area in the Western Agricultural District, west of Nullarbor recorded totals that were average to above average.

Rainfall totals over 100mm were confined to the higher parts of the Mount Lofty Ranges district. Rainfall totals that were mostly between 50 and 100mm were reported from the remainder of the Mount Lofty Ranges, and parts of the following districts, Kangaroo Island, Lower Southeast, County Light, Adelaide Plains and Lower North. Elsewhere totals were generally between 20 and 50mm, with several centres recording amounts in single digits.

The highest rainfall recorded in the Agricultural districts during May was 163mm at Lenswood, in the Mount Lofty Ranges district.

Autumn Rainfall

Agricultural Districts:
Rainfall totals were generally average to above average over much of the Agricultural Districts during autumn. However, there were isolated pockets of below average rainfall over the Lower Southeast and Western Agricultural Districts. An isolated pocket of very much above average rainfall was confined to and area west of Nullarbor.

Rainfall totals over 200mm were confined to the higher parts of the Mount Lofty Ranges District; Mount Lofty recorded 304mm and nearby Uraidla recorded 298mm. Most districts reported some rainfall totals between 100mm and 200mm. However, totals over the Western Agricultural, Murray Mallee, Upper Southeast, Upper North and Yorke Peninsula districts were in the main less than 100mm.

May Temperatures

The highest maximum recorded during May was 28.8°C at Moomba Airport on the 19th.

Minimum Temperatures:
Mean minimum temperatures for May were all below average. Most were around 1°C below average and ranged to 2°C to 3°C below in the northeast. A small area in the mount Lofty Ranges region was around 2.5°C below average. In the Pastoral districts mean minimum temperatures ranged from 3.5°C at Yunta up to 8.7°C at Andamooka. Mean minimum temperatures over the Agricultural districts ranged from 2.9°C at Yongala in the Flinders Ranges, to 11.6°C at Cape Willoughby on Kangaroo Island.

Many locations recorded their coldest mean minimum May temperatures for an extended period.: Parafield recorded 7.1°C, which was the coldest since records began in 1939. Woomera recorded 7.8°C, which was the coldest since 1960. Streaky Bay recorded 9.5°C, which was the coldest since 1961. Maitland recorded 8.8°C, which was the coldest since 1969. Nonning recorded 5.7°C, Oodnadatta recorded 7.2°C, Kimba recorded 5.2°C and Adelaide Airport recorded 8.6°C all of which were the coldest since 1976. Port Pirie recorded 9.3°C which was the coldest since 1979.

The lowest minimum temperature recorded during May was minus 3.3°C at Loxton, in the Riverland, on the 30th.

Significant May Weather

Thunderstorms
A tornado was reported from Kingston on the 6th of May at around 8:30pm, with damage indicating intensity of F0.

Winds
On the 6th of May, a vigorous cold front moved across South Australia and produced damaging wind gusts in excess of 49 knots over Kangaroo Island, Yorke Peninsula, and the Upper South East.

May weather in Adelaide

Temperatures:
The mean maximum temperature for May 2006 was 17.4°C, which is 1.5°C below the average May mean maximum of 18.9°C. This represents the coolest May daytime temperatures since 1979 when it was 17.3°C. The mean minimum temperature for May 2006 was 8.8°C, which is 1.3°C below the average of 10.1°C for May. Last May, the mean minimum was 10.3°C. May 2006, recorded its coldest average minimum temperature since 1898 when the average temperature was only 8.2°C.

Autumn 2006:
The autumn rainfall for 2006 was 121.4 mm, 2.5 mm below the average autumn rainfall of 123.9 mm. This has been the wettest autumn since 2001 when 156.4mm was recorded in Adelaide. Last autumn Adelaide recorded only 23.0 mm.

The mean maximum temperature for Autumn 2006 was 22.2°C, which is 0.3°C below the average autumn mean maximum of 22.5°C. The mean maximum for autumn last year was 24.4°C. This has been the coolest Autumn since 2000 when 22.1°C was achieved.

The mean minimum temperature for Autumn 2006 was 12.5°C, which is equal to the average autumn mean minimum. Last autumn the mean minimum was 13.0°C. This has been the coolest autumn mean minimum since 2004 when 12.3°C was recorded.

Further information:
Bruce Brooks, tel: (08) 8366 2698, e-mail: climate.sa@bom.gov.au