Greater Melbourne in 2022: wetter than average, warm nights

Rainfall in 2022 was above average in all Melbourne's suburbs; October and November were particularly wet months. Mean maximum temperatures for the year were mostly close to average while mean minimum temperatures were above average at all reporting sites.

Wetter than average

  • Rainfall in 2022 was above average in all Melbourne's suburbs and ranged from 116% of average at Essendon Airport and Scoresby Research to 141% of average at Wallan (Kilmore Gap).
  • Averaged across all sites in Greater Melbourne, this was the wettest year since 2011.
  • January, August , October and November were wetter than average months for Greater Melbourne.
  • October was very wet, and most reporting sites had more than double their average rainfall for the month.
  • A cold front brought widespread rainfall and strong winds on 13 October; the highest daily rainfall total this year for the Melbourne region of 82.2 mm was recorded at Willowmavin on that day.
  • February was much drier than average, with all sites receiving less than a quarter of their average February rainfall.
  • Rainfall in May, July and September was below average in most suburbs.
  • The wettest place in Greater Melbourne in 2022 was Ferny Creek with an annual total of 1606.4 mm.
  • Bullengarook South had its highest total rainfall on record, while some sites had their highest total rainfall since at least 1996.
  • Olympic Park's driest month in 2022 was February with a total of just 6.8 mm; the wettest was October with 149.0 mm recorded for the month.

Warm nights

  • Mean minimum temperatures for the year were above average in all suburbs of Greater Melbourne, and ranged from 0.2 °C above average at Ferny Creek and Viewbank to 1.1 °C above average at Essendon Airport and Laverton RAAF.
  • Averaged across all sites in Greater Melbourne, the mean minimum temperature was the highest since 2016.
  • Nights were very much warmer than average in January and some sites had their warmest January nights on record.
  • Nights were also warmer than average in all suburbs in March, April, August and October.
  • Mean maximum temperatures in 2022 were generally equal to annual averages or within half a degree from averages at all sites across Greater Melbourne.
  • Mean maximum temperatures were close to average in most months during the year but were much warmer than average in January and mostly below average in November.
  • The highest temperature in Greater Melbourne in 2022 was 39.0 °C at Viewbank on 1 January.
  • Melbourne (Olympic Park) failed to reach 40.0 °C during 2022. This is the fourth calendar year this century that the Melbourne city site did not record a daily maximum temperature of at least 40.0 °C (previously it happened in 2002, 2017 and 2021).

Melbourne (Olympic Park)

  • Total rainfall for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 699.4 mm.
  • The mean daily maximum temperature for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 20.0 °C.
  • The warmest day was 37.3 °C on 27 December, and the coolest day was on 12 July when the temperature reached 11.0 °C.
  • The mean daily minimum temperature for Melbourne (Olympic Park) was 11.6 °C.
  • The coldest morning was 0.8 °C on 20 July, and the warmest morning was on 28 December when the minimum temperature was 25.0 °C.

Further information

Media
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Extremes in 2022
Hottest day 39.0 °C at Viewbank on 1 Jan
Warmest days on average 20.7 °C at Viewbank
Coolest days on average 16.4 °C at Ferny Creek
Coldest day 5.4 °C at Ferny Creek on 31 May
Coldest night -3.8 °C at Coldstream on 20 Jul
Coolest nights on average 8.3 °C at Coldstream
Warmest nights on average 11.6 °C at Melbourne (Olympic Park)
Warmest night 27.0 °C at Scoresby Research Institute on 28 Dec
Warmest on average overall 15.8 °C at Melbourne (Olympic Park)
Coolest on average overall 12.5 °C at Wallan (Kilmore Gap)
Wettest overall 1606.4 mm at Ferny Creek
Wettest day 82.2 mm at Willowmavin (Avalon Station) on 13 Oct
Strongest wind gust 128 km/h at Fawkner Beacon on 31 Oct

Record highest annual total rainfall
New record
(mm)
Old
record
Years of
record
Annual
average
Bullengarook South 1089.6 1058.2 in 2021 23 742.1

Highest annual total rainfall for at least 20 years
Observed
(mm)
Most recent
higher
Annual
average
Woodend 1142.6 1143.8 in 1973* 811.8
Bullengarook East 1048.8 1087.2 in 1985* 786.2
Drysdale (Brimdale) 862.2 991.0 in 1978* 668.9
Cerberus 886.2 941.0 in 1996* 723.2
Dromana Sussex Farm 1047.4 1123.3 in 1995* 868.8
Kinglake West 1424.6 1499.3 in 1992* 1072.4
Rockbank (Melton) 669.9 688.8 in 1995* 513.5

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




Record highest annual mean daily minimum temperature
New record
(°C)
Old
record
Years of
record
Annual
average
Cerberus 10.5 = 10.5 in 2016 31 9.9



Summary statistics for 2022
Maximum temperatures
(°C)
Minimum temperatures
(°C)
Rainfall
(millimetres)
Mean
for
2022
Diff
from
average
Highest
for
2022
Mean
for
2022
Diff
from
average
Lowest
for
2022
Total
for
2022
Average
annual
total
Rank
of
2022
Fraction
of annual
average
Cerberus 19.2 0.0 37.5 27 Dec 10.5 +0.6 -1.5 21 Jul 886.2 723.2 v high 123%
Coldstream 20.5 0.0 37.2 1 Jan 8.3 +0.8 -3.8 20 Jul 1033.4 756.8 high 137%
Essendon Airport 20.1 +0.3 38.0 1 Jan 10.5 +1.1 -1.5 21 Jul 679.0 587.0 high 116%
Ferny Creek 16.4 -0.4 33.9 1 Jan 9.2 +0.2 1.8 1 Jun 1606.4
Frankston (Ballam Park) 19.5   36.7 27 Dec 10.9   1.1 20 Jul 921.2
Laverton RAAF 19.7 -0.1 38.5 1 Jan 10.5 +1.1 -1.1 21 Jul 728.6 536.0 v high 136%
Melbourne (Olympic Park) 20.0   37.3 27 Dec 11.6   0.8 20 Jul 699.4
Melbourne Airport 19.9 0.0 38.4 1 Jan 9.9 +0.3 -1.5 20 Jul 713.6 540.9 v high 132%
Moorabbin Airport 20.0 +0.1 37.9 27 Dec 10.9 +0.7 -1.4 21 Jul
Scoresby Research Institute 20.2 +0.5 37.1 1 Jan 10.0 +0.4 -1.8 20 Jul 992.0 857.2 high 116%
Viewbank 20.7 -0.2 39.0 1 Jan 10.1 +0.2 -2.5 20 Jul 868.8 679.3 high 128%
Wallan (Kilmore Gap) 16.5 -0.4 34.8 1 Jan 8.5 +0.4 0.8 30 Jul 985.6 701.3 v high 141%

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 “include the population within the urban area of the city, as well as people who regularly socialise, shop or work within the city, and live in small towns and rural areas surrounding the city. It is important to note that GCCSAs do not define the built up edge of the city. They provide a stable definition for these cities and are designed for the output of a range of social and economic survey data.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 10 pm on Sunday 22 January 2023. 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.

Further information

Media
(03) 9669 4057

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