Until the outcome of the 2025 federal election, the Australian Government is operating under caretaker conventions

Greater Melbourne in 2024

Rainfall

  • Rainfall totals for 2024 were close to average at most sites across Greater Melbourne.
  • 2024 rainfall totals ranged from around 77% to around 108% of average across Greater Melbourne.
  • Coldstream and Willowmavin (Avalon Station) had their highest year daily rainfall on record on 8 January due to a broad band of rain with embedded thunderstorms, associated with a slow-moving low pressure trough which advected tropical moisture into south-eastern Australia.

Temperature

  • Mean maximum temperatures for 2024 at all sites across Greater Melbourne were above average.
  • 2024 mean maximum temperatures for Greater Melbourne ranged from 0.3 °C above average at Melbourne (Olympic Park) to 1.4 °C above average at Essendon Airport.
  • Mean minimum temperatures for 2024 at all sites across Greater Melbourne were near to above average.
  • 2024 mean minimum temperatures for Greater Melbourne ranged from near average at Viewbank to 1.5 °C above average at Essendon Airport.
  • Essendon Airport had its equal highest annual mean minimum temperature on record, tied with 2023, at 11 °C.
  • Laverton RAAF and Essendon Airport had their highest annual mean temperature on record.

Melbourne (Olympic Park)

  • Total rainfall for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 591.8 mm, which was 103% of the long-term average of 576.8 mm.
  • The mean daily maximum temperature for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 20.7 °C, which was 0.3 °C above the long-term average of 20.4 °C.
  • The warmest day was 39.4 °C on 16 December 2024, and the coolest day was on 13 June 2024 when the temperature reached 10.1 °C.
  • The mean daily minimum temperature for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 11.8 °C, which was 0.1 °C above the long-term average of 11.7 °C.
  • The coldest morning was 1.0 °C on 3 July 2024, and the warmest morning was on 12 March 2024 when the minimum temperature was 22.8 °C.

Extremes in 2024
Hottest day 41.3 °C at Point Cook RAAF on 16 December
Warmest days on average 21.6 °C at Viewbank
Coolest days on average 17.3 °C at Ferny Creek
Coldest day 6.2 °C at Wallan (Kilmore Gap) on 13 June
Coldest night -4.5 °C at Coldstream on 19 June
Coolest nights on average 7.6 °C at Coldstream
Warmest nights on average 11.8 °C at Melbourne (Olympic Park)
Warmest night 26.2 °C at Melbourne Airport on 10 March
Warmest on average overall 16.2 °C at Melbourne (Olympic Park)
Coolest on average overall 13.1 °C at Wallan (Kilmore Gap)
Wettest overall 1417.6 mm at Ferny Creek
Wettest day 136.6 mm at Willowmavin (Avalon Station) on 8 January
Strongest wind gust 141.0 km/h at Fawkner Beacon on 2 September

Record highest year daily rainfall
New record
(mm)
Old
record
Years of
record
Average for
year
Coldstream 76.2 on 8 January 76.0 on 05 Feb 2011 29 760.8
Willowmavin (Avalon Station) 136.6 on 8 January 96.2 on 05 Mar 2020 22 680.1



Record highest year mean minimum temperature
New record
(°C)
Old
record
Years of
record
Average for
year
Essendon Airport 11.0 =11.0 in 2023 50 9.5



Record highest year mean temperature
New record
(°C)
Old
record
Years of
record
Average for
year
Laverton RAAF 15.9 =15.9 in 2007 76 14.6
Essendon Airport 16.1 16.0 in 2019 50 14.6




Summary statistics for 2024
Maximum temperatures
(°C)
Minimum temperatures
(°C)
Rainfall
(millimetres)
Mean for
year
2024
Diff
from
average
Highest for
year
2024
Mean for
year
2024
Diff
from
average
Lowest for
year
2024
Total for
year
2024
Average
for
year
Rank of
year
2024
Fraction of
year
average
Cerberus 19.8 +0.6 38.6 10 Mar 2024 10.1 +0.2 -2.0 03 Jul 2024 557.0 721.3 low 77%
Coldstream 21.0 +0.5 36.9 26 Dec 2024 7.6 +0.1 -4.5 19 Jun 2024 804.6 757.6 high 106%
Essendon Airport 21.2 +1.4 40.2 16 Dec 2024 11.0 +1.5 -0.7 19 Jun 2024 478.0 586.5 low 82%
Ferny Creek 17.3 +0.5 33.6 10 Mar 2024 9.2 +0.2 1.3 28 Jul 2024 1417.6 1310.1 average 108%
Frankston (Ballam Park) 20.2 37.7 09 Mar 2024 10.7 -0.3 07 Jul 2024 671.2
Laverton RAAF 21.1 +1.3 40.9 16 Dec 2024 10.7 +1.3 -1.1 03 Jul 2024 434.2 535.4 low 81%
Melbourne (Olympic Park) 20.7 +0.3 39.4 16 Dec 2024 11.8 +0.1 1.0 03 Jul 2024 591.8 576.8 average 103%
Melbourne Airport 21.0 +1.1 40.8 16 Dec 2024 10.1 +0.5 -0.9 03 Jul 2024 470.4 538.6 average 87%
Moorabbin Airport 20.6 +0.7 39.0 16 Dec 2024 10.8 +0.6 -1.3 03 Jul 2024 720.4 704.3 average 102%
Point Cook RAAF 20.4 41.3 16 Dec 2024 10.7 -1.6 03 Jul 2024 442.6
Scoresby Research Institute 20.9 +1.1 37.5 26 Dec 2024 10.0 +0.4 -1.8 03 Jul 2024 750.4 855.1 low 88%
Viewbank 21.6 +0.7 39.0 16 Dec 2024 10.0 0.0 -2.1 03 Jul 2024 686.8 679.2 average 101%
Wallan (Kilmore Gap) 17.7 +0.8 36.6 16 Dec 2024 8.5 +0.4 1.2 28 Jul 2024 657.2 699.9 average 94%

Notes

The Monthly climate summary, usually published in the first week of the following month, 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 on Thursday 23 January 2025. 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 previous 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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