Thursday, 1 August 2013 - Monthly Climate Summary for Sydney - Greater Sydney - Product code IDCKGC15L0

Sydney in July 2013: Warmest July on record

• Warmest July on record for maximum temperatures
• Driest July in ten years
• Longest July warm spell
• Record numbers of warm days, record few cool days.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

Sydney Observatory Hill recorded just 32.6 mm of rain during July, well below the historical average of 98.3 mm and the driest July since 2002, with dry conditions across the city. The rain fell over ten days, close to the July average of 11 days, but only four recorded more than 2 mm (average 6 days) and no days exceeded 10 mm. The wettest day was on the 1st following the showers of late June, with 9.8 mm at Observatory Hill and up to 37.6 mm at Cronulla. Cronulla also recorded 33.2 mm on the 31st.

Temperature

Sydney Observatory Hill recorded an average maximum temperature of 19.5 °C during July, 3.2 °C above the historical average, with well above average temperatures across the city. This was the warmest July on record at Observatory Hill, Sydney Airport and Bankstown, and was substantially warmer than the preceding June (18.1 °C).

Minimum temperatures were also above average across most of the city, with 9.8 °C at Observatory Hill, 1.8 °C above the historical average and the warmest July since 1993. The mean temperature was consequently 14.6 °C, the warmest on record for Sydney.

The warm temperatures during the month were associated with anomalously northerly winds and dry, sunny conditions, as well as a major warm spell. The period 15 to 20 July saw six consecutive days above 20 °C and five consecutive nights above 13 °C at Observatory Hill, in both cases the longest such spell on record for July.

In total there were 12 days above 20 °C at Observatory Hill during the month, the highest number on record for July (average 2 days). In comparison, only three days dropped below 17 °C (average 19 days), the fewest on record for July, and no nights dropped below 7 °C during the month (average 11 nights), only the third time on record.

Other phenomena

Sydney Airport recorded an average of 7.4 hours of bright sunshine during July, above the historical average of 6.6 hours and the sunniest July since 2005. The prevailing wind direction was northwesterly, with 3pm winds between N-W for 43% of the time and SE-SSW for 37% of the time; this is a lower proportion of southerly winds than normal for July. There were only two strong wind days during the month, with the strongest gusts reaching 65 km/h at Sydney Airport and 78 km/h at Port Botany on the 20th.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Most values are the precipitation in the 24 hours to 9 am on the day indicated. Days marked with »» are part of a longer accumulation, which is marked like this on the final day. Values over 100 mm have been rounded to the nearest whole millimetre. Days marked with - have a rainfall report of zero; days left blank have no rainfall report (which often indicates no rain fell).
This table is very wide; you may have to scroll sideways to see all the days, and you may need to set the paper to 'landscape' to print.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top