Tuesday, 2 January 2024 - Annual Climate Summary for Greater Melbourne - Product code IDCKGC56L0

Greater Melbourne in 2023

Rainfall

  • Rainfall in 2023 was close to average across most of Melbourne's suburbs and ranged from 79% of average at Melbourne Airport to 103% of average at Coldstream.
  • April, May, October and December were wetter than average months for Greater Melbourne.
  • July, August and September were drier than average months in Greater Melbourne, with some suburbs recording their lowest monthly rainfall.
  • The wettest place in Greater Melbourne in 2023, was Ferny Creek with an annual total of 1382.2 mm.

Temperature

  • Mean maximum temperatures in 2023 were close or above average for most suburbs and ranged from 0.3 °C of average at Ferny Creek to 0.7 °C above average at Scoresby Research Institute and Laverton RAAF.
  • Viewbank recorded the warmest days on average in 2023 at 20.9 °C and Ferny Creek recorded the coldest days on average in 2023 at 16.5 °C.
  • Mean minimum temperatures for the year were average to above average in most suburbs of Greater Melbourne with the highest recorded at 1.9 °C at Essendon Airport.
  • Laverton RAAF and Cerberus recorded their highest mean daily minimum temperature on record.
  • Melbourne (Olympic Park) recorded the warmest nights on average this year at 11.9 °C and Wallan (Kilmore Gap) recorded the coldest nights on average this year at 8.3 °C.

Melbourne (Olympic Park)

  • Total rainfall for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 575.4 mm.
  • The mean daily maximum temperature for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 20.2 °C.
  • The warmest day was 40.5 °C on 17 February, and the coolest day was on 23 June when the temperature reached 11.3 °C.
  • The mean daily minimum temperature for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 11.9 °C.
  • The coldest morning was 1.6 °C on 16 August, and the warmest morning was on 17 February when the minimum temperature was 22.8 °C.

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

Extremes in 2023
Hottest day 42.0 °C at Laverton RAAF on 17 Feb
Warmest days on average 20.9 °C at Viewbank
Coolest days on average 16.5 °C at Ferny Creek
Coldest day 5.0 °C at Wallan (Kilmore Gap) on 21 Jun
Coldest night -2.9 °C at Coldstream on 16 Aug
Coolest nights on average 8.3 °C at Wallan (Kilmore Gap)
Warmest nights on average 11.9 °C at Melbourne (Olympic Park)
Warmest night 24.6 °C at Essendon Airport on 2 Jan
Warmest on average overall 16.0 °C at Melbourne (Olympic Park)
Coolest on average overall 12.7 °C at Wallan (Kilmore Gap)
Wettest overall 1382.2 mm at Ferny Creek
Wettest day 100.3 mm at Powelltown DNRE on 4 Oct
Strongest wind gust 115 km/h at Frankston Beach on 3 May

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

Record highest annual mean daily minimum temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Annual
average
Laverton RAAF 10.8 10.7 in 2016 79 9.4
Cerberus 10.6 10.5 in 2016 31 9.9


Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for 2023
Maximum temperatures
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
(°C)		 Rainfall
(millimetres)
Mean
for
2023		 Diff
from
average		 Highest
for
2023		 Mean
for
2023		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest
for
2023		 Total
for
2023		 Average
annual
total		 Rank
of
2023		 Fraction
of annual
average
Cerberus 19.4 +0.2 39.4 17 Feb 10.6 +0.7 -0.9 16 Aug 666.4 721.3 average 92%
Coldstream 20.5 0.0 39.7 17 Feb 8.4 +0.9 -2.9 16 Aug 777.6 757.6 average 103%
Essendon Airport 20.4 +0.6 41.3 17 Feb 11.0 +1.6 -0.1 16 Aug 544.0 586.4 average 93%
Ferny Creek 16.5 -0.3 35.8 17 Feb 9.0 0.0 1.9 9 Sep 1382.2
Frankston (Ballam Park) 19.7   39.1 17 Feb 11.0   1.3 16 Aug 613.6
Laverton RAAF 20.5 +0.7 42.0 17 Feb 10.8 +1.4 -0.6 16 Aug 488.4 535.4 average 91%
Melbourne (Olympic Park) 20.2   40.5 17 Feb 11.9   1.6 16 Aug 575.4
Melbourne Airport 20.4 +0.5 41.3 17 Feb 10.2 +0.6 0.5 16 Aug 424.4 538.6 low 79%
Moorabbin Airport 20.2 +0.3 41.4 17 Feb 11.1 +0.9 0.0 16 Aug 661.0 704.3 average 94%
Scoresby Research Institute 20.4 +0.7 39.9 17 Feb 10.3 +0.7 -0.8 16 Aug 721.6 855.1 low 84%
Viewbank 20.9 0.0 41.4 17 Feb 10.3 +0.4 -1.3 16 Aug 677.0 679.2 average 100%
Wallan (Kilmore Gap) 17.1 +0.2 37.8 17 Feb 8.3 +0.2 1.5 21 Jun 661.2 699.9 average 94%

Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top

Notes

The Annual climate summary, lists the main features of the weather in Greater Melbourne using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated.

This summary includes data from observing sites in or near the Greater Melbourne “Greater Capital City Statistical Area” (GCCSA). The Australian Bureau of Statistics designed the GCCSAs to represent a socio-economic definition of each capital city. This means the greater capital city boundary includes people who regularly socialise, shop or work within the capital city, but live in the small towns and rural areas surrounding the capital city. It does not define the built up edge of the capital city.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 4 pm on Tuesday 2 January 2024. 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 rainfall 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 rain.

The Rank indicates how rainfall this time compares with the climate record for the site, based on the decile ranking (very low rainfall 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 rain 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.

Information about Australian Indigenous seasonal calendars is available at the Indigenous Weather Knowledge website.

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