Friday, 2 June 2023 - Monthly Climate Summary for Remote Islands and Antarctica - Product code IDCKGC1RR0
Remote Islands and Antarctica in May 2023
Jump to a map of the areas covered in this summary
Australia's Indian Ocean islands
- Christmas Island Aero was drier than average, it had a monthly rainfall total of 69 mm, which was 37% below the May average.
- Cocos Island Aero was wetter than average, it had a monthly rainfall total of 274.8 mm, which was 142% above the May average.
- Mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were above average for both Christmas Island Aero and Cocos Island Aero.
- Cocos Island Aero had its highest May temperature on record, at 32 °C on 8 May.
Australia's Pacific Ocean islands
- Total rainfall for Lord Howe Island Aero was 206.6 mm, this was 137% above the May average.
- Lord Howe Island (Milky Way) had its highest May daily precipitation on record, at 128.8 mm on 17 May.
- At Lord Howe Island Aero mean maximum temperature was 0.5 °C below average, while mean minimum temperature was 0.4 °C above average.
- Total May rainfall for Norfolk Island Aero was 19.8 mm, this was 15% below the May average. Noting that there were days of missing rainfall observations and May rainfall totals could be higher.
- At Norfolk Island Aero both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were above average at 0.5 °C and 0.4 °C respectively.
Australia's Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories
- The strongest wind gust recorded in May was 178 km/h at Casey on the 25 and 29.
- Both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were below average at Australian Antarctic sites.
- The total monthly rainfall for Macquarie Island was 97.2 mm, which was close to the May average of 87.5 mm.
- At Macquarie Island, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were above average.
- The strongest wind gust at Macquarie Island was recorded on 22 May at 115 km/h.
Records Summaries Daily observations Important notes the top
| Record highest May daily precipitation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
New record (mm) |
Old record |
Years of record |
||||
| Lord Howe Island (Milky Way) | 128.8 | on the 17th | 120.0 | on the 7th in 2006 | 23 | |
| Record highest May temperature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for May |
|||
| Cocos Island Airport | 32.0 | on the 8th | 31.6 | on the 6th in 2014 | 72 | 29.3 |
Records Summaries Daily observations Important notes the top
| Summary statistics for May 2023 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum temperatures (°C) |
Minimum temperatures (°C) |
Precipitation (millimetres) |
||||||||||
| Mean for May 2023 |
Diff from average |
Highest for May 2023 |
Mean for May 2023 |
Diff from average |
Lowest for May 2023 |
Total for May 2023 |
Average for May |
Rank of May 2023 |
Fraction of May average |
|||
| Offshore Islands (district 200) | ||||||||||||
| Christmas Island Aero | 28.2 | +0.3 | 29.8 | 3rd | 24.2 | +0.3 | 22.4 | 28th | 69.0 | 186.5 | low | 37% |
| Cocos Island Airport | 29.8 | +0.5 | 32.0 | 8th | 25.6 | +0.5 | 24.2 | 23rd | 274.8 | 193.0 | high | 142% |
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 21.1 | -0.5 | 23.9 | 1st | 16.8 | +0.4 | 13.4 | 22nd | 206.6 | 150.8 | high | 137% |
| Norfolk Island Aero | 21.5 | +0.5 | 24.2 | 7th | 16.6 | +0.4 | 14.1 | 26th | 19.8 | 128.3 | lowest | 15% |
| Antarctica and Macquarie Island (district 300) | ||||||||||||
| Casey | -11.9 | -1.1 | -2.8 | 30th | -20.0 | -1.7 | -26.7 | 12th | 10.1 | 24.3 | low | 42% |
| Davis | -16.0 | -3.3 | -6.8 | 15th | -22.0 | -3.1 | -29.5 | 26th | 3.7 | 9.4 | low | 39% |
| Macquarie Island | 6.5 | +0.5 | 8.7 | 1st | 3.3 | +0.7 | 0.0 | 10th | 97.2 | 87.5 | average | 111% |
| Mawson | -15.4 | -2.0 | -8.0 | 17th | -20.6 | -1.3 | -27.6 | 13th | ||||
| Note: Precipitation values from Casey and Davis should be used with caution. | ||||||||||||
Records Summaries Daily observations Important notes the top
| Daily maximum temperatures for May 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore Islands (200) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Christmas Island Aero | 28.8 | 29.8 | 29.8 | 29.5 | 29.2 | 28.7 | 29.5 | 28.9 | 29.1 | 28.9 | 28.2 | 27.8 | 28.3 | 28.0 | 27.8 | 27.6 | 28.0 | 27.8 | 27.8 | 28.3 | 28.4 | 27.1 | 27.3 | 27.6 | 27.0 | 26.6 | 26.8 | 27.5 | 27.9 | 27.6 | 27.6 |
| Cocos Island Airport | 29.7 | 29.5 | 29.8 | 30.7 | 29.7 | 30.3 | 31.0 | 32.0 | 29.6 | 30.8 | 30.8 | 28.2 | 29.2 | 29.7 | 29.1 | 29.3 | 29.5 | 29.3 | 28.8 | 30.2 | 31.4 | 31.4 | 28.4 | 27.6 | 28.5 | 29.3 | 29.8 | 30.3 | 29.9 | 29.6 | |
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 23.9 | 22.7 | 23.3 | 23.1 | 22.9 | 22.2 | 21.8 | 20.0 | 20.8 | 21.2 | 21.6 | 21.1 | 21.3 | 21.6 | 21.5 | 20.2 | 19.6 | 19.4 | 19.2 | 20.0 | 21.0 | 19.5 | 20.7 | 21.4 | 20.3 | 20.6 | 19.6 | 19.5 | 20.6 | 20.7 | 21.7 |
| Norfolk Island Aero | 23.6 | 23.3 | 22.4 | 23.2 | 22.8 | 24.1 | 24.2 | 23.0 | 22.1 | 21.2 | 21.8 | 19.9 | 20.6 | 20.8 | 20.5 | 20.2 | 22.2 | 20.7 | 20.8 | 21.7 | 20.5 | 19.5 | 19.8 | 19.6 | 20.3 | 21.4 | 21.8 | 21.4 | 20.3 | 20.7 | |
| Antarctica and Macquarie Island (300) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Casey | -8.4 | -4.0 | -6.8 | -18.5 | -8.8 | -5.6 | -9.4 | -12.2 | -13.4 | -9.8 | -18.0 | -5.1 | -2.8 | -8.7 | -18.6 | -17.3 | -17.6 | -18.1 | -19.3 | -19.2 | -18.1 | -19.0 | -21.3 | -17.5 | -7.1 | -9.0 | -12.6 | -8.6 | -2.8 | -2.8 | -10.0 |
| Davis | -18.7 | -17.7 | -12.8 | -8.5 | -7.9 | -8.5 | -10.3 | -10.0 | -16.1 | -20.0 | -16.6 | -15.7 | -14.5 | -10.2 | -6.8 | -15.4 | -17.8 | -19.2 | -18.8 | -22.6 | -23.8 | -23.3 | -18.7 | -20.1 | -20.3 | -19.1 | -21.5 | -22.5 | -18.0 | -8.9 | -11.7 |
| Macquarie Island | 8.7 | 8.6 | 5.3 | 6.8 | 7.1 | 6.9 | 6.0 | 6.1 | 4.7 | 6.4 | 6.7 | 7.3 | 6.1 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 5.4 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.8 | 4.1 | 4.9 | 7.8 | 8.5 | 5.3 | 7.4 | 6.5 | 7.1 | 6.9 | 6.1 |
| Mawson | -14.5 | -11.8 | -10.7 | -12.5 | -14.0 | -16.1 | -15.9 | -15.0 | -16.4 | -16.5 | -19.6 | -22.6 | -16.1 | -16.6 | -11.0 | -10.0 | -8.0 | -9.3 | -11.0 | -16.7 | -15.7 | -15.8 | -17.6 | -19.0 | -13.5 | -19.1 | -17.3 | -19.7 | -19.5 | -17.2 | -17.7 |
|
Values are the maximum temperature, usually in the 24 hours from 9 am on the day indicated, and typically occurred in the afternoon of that day. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Temperatures coloured according to their difference from the long-term average for the period |
-10.0 | -9.0 | -8.0 | -7.0 | -6.0 | -5.0 | -4.0 | -3.0 | -2.0 | -1.0 | 0.0 | +1.0 | +2.0 | +3.0 | +4.0 | +5.0 | +6.0 | +7.0 | +8.0 | +9.0 | +10.0 | °C | Grey outline marks highest and lowest for the period |
||||||||
| Daily minimum temperatures for May 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore Islands (200) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Christmas Island Aero | 24.0 | 23.0 | 23.7 | 24.7 | 23.8 | 23.3 | 25.9 | 22.8 | 25.7 | 25.9 | 24.5 | 24.9 | 25.5 | 25.4 | 24.7 | 24.2 | 24.3 | 22.8 | 23.6 | 24.9 | 24.9 | 23.8 | 24.6 | 24.1 | 24.3 | 23.5 | 23.3 | 22.4 | 24.6 | 24.3 | 24.3 |
| Cocos Island Airport | 27.0 | 27.1 | 24.7 | 25.0 | 24.9 | 25.9 | 25.5 | 25.1 | 28.0 | 24.5 | 27.0 | 26.1 | 26.1 | 26.0 | 24.3 | 25.5 | 24.4 | 24.2 | 26.1 | 25.2 | 25.0 | 26.2 | 25.4 | 25.2 | 25.5 | 26.4 | |||||
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 20.6 | 18.5 | 19.8 | 19.9 | 18.6 | 15.2 | 17.4 | 16.1 | 16.8 | 16.1 | 17.1 | 15.9 | 16.1 | 18.3 | 18.4 | 18.5 | 16.4 | 15.5 | 15.2 | 15.8 | 13.4 | 15.5 | 14.4 | 15.3 | 17.4 | 13.4 | 15.9 | 16.9 | 17.8 | ||
| Norfolk Island Aero | 16.9 | 19.2 | 20.8 | 18.3 | 18.0 | 18.5 | 19.4 | 21.1 | 18.8 | 17.0 | 16.6 | 16.3 | 15.9 | 14.5 | 15.2 | 14.9 | 16.0 | 16.5 | 15.2 | 14.7 | 14.9 | 14.5 | 16.1 | 15.3 | 14.1 | 14.2 | 15.9 | 17.1 | 15.0 | 15.6 | |
| Antarctica and Macquarie Island (300) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Casey | -16.2 | -15.9 | -11.8 | -23.4 | -23.6 | -21.0 | -11.4 | -15.7 | -15.9 | -16.3 | -20.9 | -26.7 | -21.2 | -12.5 | -20.2 | -23.0 | -21.6 | -22.1 | -24.5 | -24.9 | -23.9 | -21.3 | -25.0 | -26.6 | -26.1 | -20.6 | -17.7 | -20.1 | -19.5 | -11.1 | -18.4 |
| Davis | -22.0 | -23.4 | -22.5 | -18.6 | -12.8 | -12.0 | -12.0 | -16.3 | -16.4 | -22.1 | -23.4 | -21.0 | -22.7 | -25.3 | -14.8 | -15.8 | -19.5 | -21.5 | -22.9 | -25.5 | -27.3 | -28.5 | -27.1 | -29.0 | -26.7 | -29.5 | -26.6 | -26.0 | -27.0 | -26.4 | -18.8 |
| Macquarie Island | 6.9 | 6.2 | 4.6 | 2.7 | 5.2 | 5.5 | 1.4 | 4.3 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 5.6 | 4.0 | 3.4 | 5.7 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 4.9 | 1.1 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 4.9 | 3.9 | 5.1 | 3.0 |
| Mawson | -17.0 | -20.7 | -21.0 | -13.0 | -16.6 | -19.2 | -20.6 | -21.6 | -20.6 | -20.7 | -22.4 | -26.4 | -27.6 | -26.6 | -18.8 | -18.8 | -12.1 | -11.6 | -11.7 | -20.1 | -21.3 | -20.8 | -19.2 | -24.0 | -23.5 | -22.2 | -23.9 | -25.1 | -25.2 | -22.8 | -22.1 |
|
Values are the minimum temperature, usually in the 24 hours to 9 am on the day indicated, and typically occurred that morning. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Temperatures coloured according to their difference from the long-term average for the period |
-10.0 | -9.0 | -8.0 | -7.0 | -6.0 | -5.0 | -4.0 | -3.0 | -2.0 | -1.0 | 0.0 | +1.0 | +2.0 | +3.0 | +4.0 | +5.0 | +6.0 | +7.0 | +8.0 | +9.0 | +10.0 | °C | Grey outline marks highest and lowest for the period |
||||||||
| Daily precipitation for May 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore Islands (200) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| Christmas Island Aero | 0.2 | 2.8 | - | 0.2 | - | 25.0 | 0.2 | 17.2 | - | - | 10.4 | 0.8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.4 | - | - | 0.4 | 2.8 | 6.2 | 0.8 | - | 0.2 | 0.4 | |
| Cocos Island Airport | 31.0 | 0.2 | - | - | 16.6 | 0.6 | - | - | 2.2 | - | 47.0 | 0.6 | 13.0 | 51.8 | 83.2 | - | 0.2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 16.6 | 11.2 | 0.2 | - | - | 0.2 | 0.2 | |
| Lord Howe Island (Milky Way) | - | 15.2 | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 1.8 | - | - | 0.4 | - | - | 129 | 52.4 | 0.8 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 5.2 | - | 2.6 | 0.2 | - | 7.8 | 5.6 | - | 1.8 | 0.2 | |
| Lord Howe Island Aero | - | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | - | - | - | 0.2 | 113 | 46.2 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 5.8 | 6.2 | 3.4 | - | - | - | 11.6 | 7.2 | - | - | |||||
| Norfolk Island Aero | - | - | - | - | 0.2 | 0.2 | - | 1.8 | - | 0.2 | 0.2 | 12.2 | - | - | - | 0.2 | 3.2 | 0.4 | - | 1.0 | - | - | - | - | 0.2 | |||||||
| Antarctica and Macquarie Island (300) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| Casey | 3.5 | - | - | - | - | - | 0.8 | - | - | - | 3.9 | - | - | - | - | - | 0.1 | - | - | - | - | 0.6 | - | - | - | - | 0.4 | 0.8 | - | - | - | |
| Davis | - | - | - | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.5 | - | - | - | - | - | 0.5 | 0.4 | - | 0.7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.1 | |
| Macquarie Island | 1.2 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 | - | - | 4.0 | 3.4 | 0.2 | 2.0 | - | 6.4 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 7.0 | 5.0 | 1.8 | 8.6 | 2.0 | 3.6 | 13.8 | 6.4 | 4.0 | 8.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 5.8 | ||
|
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 shown on the final day. Values over 100 mm have been rounded to the nearest whole millimetre. Days marked with - have a precipitation report of zero; days left blank have no precipitation report (which often indicates no precipitation fell). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Precipitations coloured according to the amount |
0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 15.0 | 25.0 | 50.0 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 600 | millimetres | ||||||||||||||||||
Records Summaries Daily observations Important notes the top
Notes
The Monthly climate summary, generally published on the first working day of each month, lists the main features of the weather in Remote Islands and Antarctica using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. More extensive discussion of significant weather events, along with later information and data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review.
This statement has been prepared based on information available at 11 am on Friday 2 June 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 precipitation 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 precipitation.
The Rank indicates how precipitation this time compares with the climate record for the site,
based on the
decile ranking
(very low precipitation 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 precipitation 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
- media@bom.gov.au (03) 9669 4057
Unless otherwise noted, all maps, graphs and diagrams in this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
