Monday, 3 September 2007 - Monthly Climate Summary for Canberra Averages Summary - Product code IDCKGC17L0

Hot August  nights for Canberra.

Summary

 

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Rainfall

Canberra Airport recorded a total rainfall of 11.6 mm during August, well below the historic average of 47.1 mm. The majority of that fell on 17th (9.2 mm) with the passage of a cold front through the region, this produced some thunderstorm and shower activity, with reports of pea size hail in the northern and southern suburbs of Canberra. The remainder of the month was relatively dry, as the ACT remained under the influence of a persistent high pressure system. There were 9 rain days during August, just below the average of 10 days. There was considerable variation in August rainfall totals across the ACT with totals ranging from 30.2mm at Mount Ginini to 4.4 mm at Watson.

Temperature

The unusual combination  of both day-time and night -time being considerably higher than average during  August produced the warmest on record mean daily temperature (the average of the  mean maximum and  mean minimum temperatures) at Canberra Airport with a temperature of  9.4 °C (previous record 9.0°C in 1995), and 2.4°C  warmer than the historic average of  7.0°C.  The average maximum (day-time) temperatures during August was 15.0°C  considerably warmer than the long term average of 13.0°C. Canberra Airport also experienced very warm average minimum (night-time) temperatures during August, the average minimum of  3.8°C being   2.9°C above the historic average of 0.9°C and the equal second warmest on record with 1939 (warmest 3.9 °C in 1998).  

Extremes of temperature at Canberra Airport ranged from a high of  21.9°C on the 28th to a low of −0.7°C on the 13th. Corresponding extremes for Tuggeranong ranged from a high of  22.5°C on the 27th to a low of −1.8°C on the 7th.

Other phenomena

August nights at Canberra Airport were very mild, this was reflected  by the lack of  frosts with only 12 frosts  recorded compared to the long term average of 18 frosts. There was 1 fog (average 4 fogs).  It was generally a sunny month with sunshine averaging 7.3 hours per day (long term average 6.9 hours per day).  August was windier than usual with an average wind run of  236 km per day compared to the long term average of  208 km per day. There were 2 strong wind days (average 2), on the 10th the wind also exceeded gale force (greater than 63 kilometers per hour) as a result there were several reports of  tree and minor property damage in Canberra suburbs. There were no snow days (average 0). There was 1 thunderstorm (average 0) on the 17th associated with  the passage of a cold front. Even though there was no hail days reported at Canberra Airport several northern and southern suburbs reported pea size hail during the early morning of the 17th. The average air pressure of 1022.2 hPA was well above the long term average of 1019.0 hPa. Evaporation was 90.6 mm was well above the average of  79.7 mm. 

Further information

Owen Offler
Climate Information
Climate Services Centre
Canberra Meteorological Office
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (02) 62470411
Email climate.act@bom.gov.au

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Extremes

Hottest day Highest temperature	22.5°C at Tuggeranong (Isabella Plains) AWS on the 27th
Warmest days on average Highest mean daily maximum temperature	15.2°C at Tuggeranong (Isabella Plains) AWS
Coolest days on average Lowest mean daily maximum temperature	15.0°C at Canberra Airport
Coldest day Lowest daily maximum temperature	10.0°C at Canberra Airport on the 4th
Coldest night Lowest temperature	−1.8°C at Tuggeranong (Isabella Plains) AWS on the 7th
Coolest nights on average Lowest mean daily minimum temperature	3.6°C at Tuggeranong (Isabella Plains) AWS
Warmest nights on average Highest mean daily minimum temperature	3.8°C at Canberra Airport
Warmest night Highest daily minimum temperature	11.1°C at Tuggeranong (Isabella Plains) AWS on the 11th
Wettest overall Highest total rainfall	11.6 mm at Canberra Airport
Wettest day Highest daily rainfall	9.2 mm at Canberra Airport on the 17th
Highest wind gust	85 km/h at Canberra Airport on the 10th

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Summaries

Summary statistics for 1 August to 31 August 2007
	Maximum temperatures for 1 August to 31 August (°C)				Minimum temperatures for 1 August to 31 August (°C)				Rainfall for 1 August to 31 August (millimetres)
	Mean for 1 August to 31 August 2007	Diff from normal	Highest for 1 August to 31 August 2007		Mean for 1 August to 31 August 2007	Diff from normal	Lowest for 1 August to 31 August 2007		Total for 1 August to 31 August 2007	Normal for 1 August to 31 August	Rank of 1 August to 31 August 2007	Fraction of 1 August to 31 August normal
Sthn Tablelands Gburn-Monaro (district 70)
Canberra Airport	15.0	+2.0	21.9	28th	3.8	+2.9	−0.7	13th	11.6	47.1	very low	25%
Tuggeranong	15.2	+0.8	22.5	27th	3.6	+3.2	−1.8	7th	8.4

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Notes

A note about deciles: Deciles are used to give an element (in this case rainfall or temperature) a ranking. Deciles are calculated by arranging the totals in ascending order (from lowest to highest) then splitting them into 10 equal groups (thus the groups are called deciles). The first group would be in decile range one, the second group in decile range two, etc up to the highest annual totals (highest 10 per cent) being in decile range 10.

¹Averages:  Historic average temperatures for Canberra Airport are based on the period 1961 to 1990 which is a convention of the World Meteorological Organisation.  Historic rainfall averages and extremes for Canberra Airport are based on all years of record 1939 - 2006.

Normals are long-term averages based on observations from all available years of record, which vary from site to site. They are not shown for sites with less than 20 years of record for temperature and less than 30 years of record for rainfall, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.