Australia in March 2023

In brief

• For Australia as a whole, March rainfall was 7% below average. 
• Rainfall for March was above average for an area extending from the central Northern Territory, through the Gulf Country and central Queensland, along parts of eastern Australia, and for much of the west of Western Australia and northern Tasmania. 
• Rainfall was below average for parts of the far northern tropics, extending into parts of Western Australia's northern interior and the south-east of the Northern Territory, and in north-western New South Wales and some adjacent parts of Queensland and South Australia.
• Australia's national area-average mean temperature was 1.11 °C above the 1961–1990 average for March, the equal-tenth-highest on record.
• Area-average mean maximum temperature for March was 1.35 °C above average nationally. The national mean minimum temperature was 0.86 °C above average.
• Mean maximum temperatures for March were warmer than average for much of Western Australia, northern South Australia, New South Wales, eastern and southern Queensland, the southern Northern Territory and much of the Top End. Mean maxima were cooler than average for an area extending from the central and eastern Northern Territory into western Queensland, for far south-eastern South Australia and south-western Victoria.
• Mean minimum temperatures for March were warmer than average for much of Western Australia away from the Kimberley and South West Land Division, through central Australia, the southern half of Queensland, northern and eastern New South Wales, central to eastern Victoria, and pockets of the far northern tropics. They were cooler than average in parts of the south-eastern Top End, central Northern Territory, extending into the Kimberley in Western Australia.

Further discussion and tables of records for each state and the Northern Territory can be found in the individual regional climate summaries, published on 3 April 2023.

Temperatures

The national mean temperature for March was 1.11 °C above the 1961–1990 March, the equal-tenth-highest on record. Area-average mean maximum temperature was 1.35 °C above average nationally. The national mean minimum temperature was 0.86 °C above average.

Mean maximum temperatures for March were above or very much above average for much of Western Australia, northern South Australia, New South Wales, eastern and southern Queensland, the southern Northern Territory and much of the Top End. The area-averaged maximum temperature was the ninth-highest on record for New South Wales and the tenth-highest on record for South Australia. Many sites, particularly along the east coast of the mainland and through northern New South Wales, had their highest mean maximum temperature on record for March, or the highest for at least 20 years.

Heatwaves just after the middle of the month saw the highest temperature on record for March observed at a large number of stations through New South Wales, as well as at a few stations in north-west Victoria, parts of Pastoral South Australia, and south-eastern Queensland.

Mean maximum temperatures were below average for parts of the central and eastern Northern Territory extending into western Queensland, and for far south-eastern South Australia and south-western Victoria and the Wimmera.

Mean minimum temperatures for March were above or very much above average for central to eastern Victoria; eastern and northern New South Wales; most of western and northern South Australia extending into southern parts of the Northern Territory; the southern half of Queensland, extending into the Central Coast and parts of Cape York Peninsula; parts of the Top End; and much of Western Australia away from the northern and eastern Kimberley and the South West Land Division.

A large number of stations on the central coast to north-eastern New South Wales and in south-eastern and southern Queensland, had their highest mean minimum temperature on record for March, but mostly at stations with less than 30 years of observations.

For Queensland as a whole, the area-averaged mean minimum temperature for March was the seventh-highest on record.

Mean minimum temperatures were cooler than average for large parts of the northern and central Northern Territory and adjacent parts of the southern Kimberley in Western Australia. The area-averaged minimum temperature for the Northern Territory was close to average, but the lowest since 2014.

Rank ranges from 1 (lowest) to 114 (highest). A rank marked with ’=‘ indicates the value is tied for that rank. Anomaly is the departure from the long-term (1961–1990) average.

Rainfall

For Australia as a whole, March rainfall was 7% below the 1961–1990 average.

Rainfall for March was above average for much of central Northern Territory extending through the Gulf Country into western and central Queensland, in much of western to central Western Australia, in pockets of eastern Australia, and the northern half of Tasmania.

Some stations to the south of the Gulf of Carpentaria around the border of the Northern Territory and Queensland observed their highest total rainfall on record for March, with rainfall for the month more than twice the average March total in a broad area.

A few stations along the ranges in New South Wales also had their highest March rainfall total on record, while a number of other stations in eastern Australia and in the west of Western Australia had their highest March total rainfall for at least 20 years.

Rainfall was below average for much of the Top End and areas between Western Australia's Kimberley and the south-east of the Northern Territory, pockets of Queensland's Cape York Peninsula, and an area spanning eastern South Australia, north-western New South Wales, and far south-west Queensland.

Significant weather and records

Heavy rain and flooding in northern Australia

Storms and widespread heavy rain in the northern tropics associated with a monsoon trough and a tropical low started in the last week of February and continued throughout the first ten days of March. The highest daily totals were recorded across the northern interior of the Northern Territory and in north-western Queensland. Ten-day totals of 400 to 800 mm were recorded in an area of the Carpentaria and Barkly districts in the Northern Territory and in Queensland's Gulf Country and North-West districts. Some stations in this region had their wettest March day on record, or wettest day for any month of the year. This event resulted in major flooding along the several rivers across the eastern Northern Territory and north-western Queensland, leading to evacuation of some communities and the closure of many transport routes. More than half a metre of rain in 2 days led to record-high flood levels around Burketown in the Gulf Country.

A few stations in north-western Queensland and the Gulf Country observed record-low daily maximum temperatures for March during this period.

Cool and wet in south-eastern Australia

A series of cold fronts crossed south-eastern Australia between the 6th and 10th, bringing gusty winds and daily maximum temperatures up to 10 °C below average. Associated cloud and embedded thunderstorms resulted in rain and showers in much of Tasmania, Victoria and south-western New South Wales. For western Tasmania, rainfall totals over this period were generally between 50 and 100 mm, with snow falling to relatively low levels.

Heatwave during mid-March

A heatwave affected much of Australia during a week-long period around the middle of the month. Heat started to build across Western Australia, where heatwave conditions reached severe intensity in Pilbara. Low intensity heatwave conditions affected parts of inland Western Australia, the southern Northern Territory, northern South Australia, southern and south-eastern Queensland, and parts of northern and eastern New South Wales. On the 18th and 19th, many late-season high temperature records were set in New South Wales and Victoria, including highest March temperature on record at many sites. There were multiple grassfires and bushfires across Victoria and New South Wales with hundreds of firefighters deployed and total fire bans in place across Victoria and for much of New South Wales and South Australia.

Tropical moisture brings showers and storms to western, eastern, and south-eastern Australia

Close to the end of March, tropical moisture combined with weather systems including a tropical low to the west of Western Australia, brought several days of widespread rainfall, showers and storms to large parts of Australia. These were associated with a band of cloud extending from tropical east Indian Ocean across Western Australia towards eastern and south-eastern parts of the country. In New South Wales three-day rainfall totals to 9am on the 30th were generally between 50 and 80 mm in much of the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast, with locally higher totals, and between 40 and 60 mm across South West Slopes. Eastern Victoria and eastern Tasmania also generally received between 40 and 60 mm over the same three-day period.

Showers, thunderstorms and rain impacted parts of Western Australia as tropical moisture from a low pressure system offshore from the Pilbara streamed across the west coast. Three-day rainfall totals to 9 am on the 31st of more than 40 mm were recorded at many sites in the Pilbara, Gascoyne, and Northern Interior districts. This rain fell in addition to rain associated with a low pressure trough that generated severe thunderstorms across the west of Western Australia on the 26th and 27th, including in south-west of the state which had very little rain over the last several months.

Rank ranges from 1 (lowest) to 124 (highest). A rank marked with ’=‘ indicates the value is tied for that rank. Departure from mean is relative to the long-term (1961–1990) average.