Climate highlights and notable events
Australia
- Fourth-warmest year on record; mean temperature 1.15 °C above average
- Rainfall below average for parts of the west and southeast Queensland, but
annual total rainfall 4% above average overall - Extreme heat and widespread bushfires in eastern Australia early in the year
- Much of Australia affected by drought early in the year
- La Niña declared in September, reaching moderate strength by the end of the year
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Great Barrier Reef
- Sea surface temperatures across the Great Barrier Reef warmest on record for February and second-warmest on record for March. Accumulated heat led to very widespread coral bleaching across the Reef.
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Murray–Darling Basin
- Drought affected much of eastern Australia early in the year. Water storages in the southern Murray–Darling Basin increased significantly during 2020, but northern Basin water storage levels remained low.
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Southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales
- A coastal low during mid-December produced prolonged heavy rainfall, flooding, and significant coastal erosion in parts of northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland.
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Eastern Australia
- A large number of fires were active in southeast Queensland, eastern New South Wales, and northeastern Victoria and Gippsland at the start of the year. All fires were contained by the end of February.
- Flooding affected eastern Australia during February and March, particularly through Queensland.
- Significant heatwaves affected much of southeast and eastern Australia in late November to early December.
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Southeastern Australia
- Extreme heat affected southeastern Australia at the start and end of January, at the start of February, and during November.
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Southern Australia
- May–July rainfall was the seventh-lowest on record for southern Australia.
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Victoria
- Maximum and minimum temperatures close to average for most months of the year, but the mean temperature for spring was the warmest on record for the State.
- Annual rainfall close to average for Victoria, and well above average for Melbourne.
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New South Wales
- A significant heatwave affected eastern New South Wales early in the year. Penrith Lakes reached 48.9 °C on 4 January, the highest temperature ever recorded in the Sydney Basin.
- Severe hailstorms during 20 January brought hail 4 to 6 cm in diameter across the southern half of Belconnen and Canberra's inner southern suburbs.
- Storms resulted in significant coastal erosion and hazardous beach conditions for much for much of the New South Wales coast during mid-July.
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Queensland
- Fifth-warmest year on record for Queensland.
- By the end of 2020, Wivenhoe Dam in southeast Queensland had dropped to its lowest level in 10 years.
- A significant heatwave affected much of northwest to southeast Queensland around the middle of November.
- Severe thunderstorms brought giant hail across southeast Queensland during the last week of October, with hail up to 14 cm in diameter in the southern outskirts of Brisbane on the 31st.
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Northwestern Australia
- Extreme heat affected northern Western Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory during August and September. Some stations in northern Western Australia broke their previous August record multiple times.
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Northern Territory
- By the end of 2020, Darwin's water storages had dropped to their lowest levels in 10 years.
- Fifth-warmest year on record for the Northern Territory.
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Western Australia
- Second-warmest year on record for Western Australia.
- Storms resulted in significant coastal erosion in west coast Western Australia during May.
- Severe tropical cyclone Damien caused significant damage to the Dampier weather radar and a wind gust of 194 km/h at Karratha Airport on 8 February.
- Seventh-driest April–October on record for the South West Land Division.
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South Australia
- After more than a decade of warmer than average years, 2020 was Greater Adelaide's coolest year since 2003.
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Tasmania
- A significant cold outbreak during the first week of August saw a rare fall of settling snow in Launceston, while Liawenee set a State low temperature record: −14.2 °C on the 7th.
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