Tuesday, 9 January 2018 - Annual Climate Summary for Remote Islands and Antarctica - Product code IDCKGC5RR0

Remote Islands and Antarctica in 2017

Jump to a map of the areas covered in this summary

Australia's Indian Ocean islands

  • Temperatures were a little above the long-term average on both Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, but more than half a degree cooler than 2016
  • Cocos Islands Airport had its equal-highest temperature on record, reaching 32.8 °C on 23 February
  • There was very high rainfall on Christmas Island in both October and November, including the Airport's wettest day on record of 212.6 mm from an active monsoon trough to the north in which tropical cyclone Cempaka and then tropical cyclone Dahlia formed
  • Although annual rainfall was above average on Christmas Island, the year was not as wet as the record-breaking 2016
  • Rainfall was below average on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, with the airport recording about three-quarters of its long term average

Australia's Pacific Ocean islands

  • Temperatures were above average on both Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, but a little cooler than 2016
  • Norfolk Island Airport had its lowest annual rainfall on record, with the total of 778.4 mm only 60% of the long-term average
  • Lord Howe Island's total rainfall was somewhat below average, and similar to 2016

Australia's Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories

  • Temperatures were below average at Australia's Antarctic sites, with both Davis and Casey more than half a degree cooler than their long-term averages
  • Macquarie Island had its warmest year since 1989 for mean daily maximum temperature, mean daily minimum temperature and mean temperature
  • Rainfall was above average on Macquarie Island, with the second-wettest spring on record countered by a relatively dry autumn

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Records Summaries Important notes the top

Record highest daily precipitation
New record
(mm)		 Old
record		 Years of
record
Christmas Island Aero 212.6 on 29 Nov 195.8 on 13 Oct 2016 45


Record lowest annual total precipitation
New record
(mm)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Annual
average
Norfolk Island Aero 778.4 783.3 in 2010 122 1291.1


Record highest temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Annual
average
Cocos Island Airport 32.8 on 23 Feb = 32.8 on 7 Apr 2015 66 29.1


Highest annual mean daily maximum temperature for at least 20 years
Observed
(°C)		 Most recent
higher		 Annual
average
Macquarie Island 7.3 7.4 in 1989* 6.6

* note: there are gaps in the historical record at this site, so it is possible a higher value has gone unreported



Highest annual mean daily minimum temperature for at least 20 years
Observed
(°C)		 Most recent
higher		 Annual
average
Macquarie Island 3.7 3.8 in 1989* 3.1

* note: there are gaps in the historical record at this site, so it is possible a higher value has gone unreported



Highest annual mean temperature for at least 20 years
Observed
(°C)		 Most recent
higher		 Annual
average
Macquarie Island 5.5 5.6 in 1989* 4.8

* note: there are gaps in the historical record at this site, so it is possible a higher value has gone unreported



Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for 2017
Maximum temperatures
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
(°C)		 Precipitation
(millimetres)
Mean
for
2017		 Diff
from
average		 Highest
for
2017		 Mean
for
2017		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest
for
2017		 Total
for
2017		 Average
annual
total		 Rank
of
2017		 Fraction
of annual
average
Offshore Islands (district 200)
Christmas Island Aero 27.4 +0.1 30.4 13 Mar 23.1 +0.2 20.2 18 Jul 2805.2 2199.4 high 128%
Cocos Island Airport 29.1 0.0 32.8 23 Feb 24.8 +0.2 22.1 20 Aug 1458.6 1983.1 low 74%
Lord Howe Island Aero 22.7 +0.6 30.3 4 Feb 17.6 +0.5 8.2 28 Jul 1364.2 1495.5 average 91%
Norfolk Island Aero 22.4 +0.9 27.9 4 Apr 17.1 +0.8 10.9 29 Jul 778.4 1291.1 lowest 60%
Antarctica and Macquarie Island (district 300)
Casey -6.7 -0.8 6.5 9 Jan -13.2 -0.6 -33.8 28 Sep
Davis -7.8 -0.5 7.9 23 Dec -13.8 -0.7 -35.4 22 Jun
Macquarie Island 7.3 +0.7 11.3 24 Feb 3.7 +0.6 -4.7 25 Jul 1115.0 988.3 high 113%
Mawson -8.4 -0.1 6.2 24 Jan -14.7 -0.4 -30.3 9 Jul
Note: Precipitation values from Casey and Davis should be used with caution.

Records Summaries Important notes the top

Map of the areas covered by this summary

Notes

The Annual climate summary, generally published on the second working day of the year, lists the main features of the weather in Remote Islands and Antarctica using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. More extensive discussion of significant weather events, along with later information and data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at on Tuesday 9 January 2018. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

In some situations, some or all of the precipitation is in the form of hail or snow. In these cases the totals given are for the water equivalent: the depth of liquid water that results from melting any frozen precipitation. There can be significant 'undercatch' of snow in strong winds, meaning the true precipitation can be higher than that reported.

Averages for individual sites are long-term means based on observations from all available years of record, which vary widely from site to site. They are not shown for sites with less than 10 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.
The median is sometimes more representative than the mean of long-term average precipitation.

The Rank indicates how precipitation this time compares with the climate record for the site, based on the decile ranking (very low precipitation is in decile 1, low in decile 2 or 3, average in decile 4 to 7, high in decile 8 or 9 and very high is in decile 10).
The Fraction of average shows how much precipitation has fallen this time as a percentage of the long-term mean.

Where temperature area averages are mentioned, they are derived from the ACORN-SAT dataset.

Further information

Media
(03) 9669 4057
Enquiries