South Australian Monthly Climate Summary: June 2006
Cold and Dry over most of SA

Monday 3 July, 2006

In Brief

June temperatures were below normal across the whole State, while June rainfall was below to very much below average over most of South Australia.

Details

Rainfall:

Pastoral Districts: Rainfall totals were below to very much below average over most of the Pastoral Districts; Woomera, in the North West district, Oodnadatta and Leigh Creek, in the Far North district, reported their lowest rainfalls on record for June. Isolated shower activity over pockets of the North East and Far North Pastoral districts brought some average to above average totals.

Rainfall totals varied widely. Arkaroola, in the Far North district reported a total of 27, the highest amount in the Pastoral Districts, while in the Northwest and Far North districts there were several stations that reported no rainfall. Most stations throughout the Pastoral Districts reported totals in the range of 1 to 10 mm.

The highest rainfall reported in the Pastoral Districts was 27 mm at Arkaroola, in the Far North district.

Agricultural Districts: Rainfall totals below to very much below average were reported from most of the Agricultural districts. Many centres on and east of the Mt. Lofty Ranges reported their lowest rainfalls on record for June. Isolated pockets of near average rainfall were confined to the central part of Yorke Peninsula district and the far west of the Western Agricultural district.

Rainfall totals equal to and above 50 mm were confined to the higher parts of the Mt Lofty Ranges districts. Totals below 25 mm were reported from parts of the Western Agricultural and Lower Southeast districts and most of the Upper and Lower North, Adelaide Plains, Riverland, Flats and Lower Basin, Murray Mallee and Upper South East districts. Elsewhere, rainfall totals were between 25 and 50 mm.

The highest rainfall recorded in the Agricultural districts during June was 75 mm at Parawa AWS, in the Mt Lofty Ranges district.

Temperatures:

Mean maximum temperatures for June were all below average and generally less than 0.5°C below normal over most of the southern half of the State and mostly less than 1°C below normal over the remainder. In the Pastoral districts mean maximum temperatures ranged from 14.9°C at Yunta to 19.3°C at Marree. Mean maximum temperatures over the Agricultural districts ranged from 11.2°C at Mt Crawford, in the Mount Lofty Ranges, to 16.8°C at Murray Bridge in the Murraylands district. The highest maximum recorded during June was 25.6°C at Moomba on the 29th.

Mean minimum temperatures for June were all well below average and were generally 2 to 3°C below average. In the pastoral districts mean minima at Arkaroola was 4.1°C below average. Mean minimum temperatures ranged from minus 0.2°C at Yunta Airport to 5°C at Moomba Airport. Over the Agricultural districts mean minima at Yongala was 4.8°C below average. Mean minimum temperatures ranged from minus 1.9C at Yongala to 10.3°C at Cape Willoughby. The lowest minimum temperature recorded during June was minus 7.3°C at Yongala in the North East Pastoral district on the 15th.

Extremes

Low Minimum Temperature Records for June 2006 :

Adelaide

Adelaide has experienced its third driest June on record and second lowest average minimum temperature. Nights were cold with twice as many frosts than the average of 4 for June.

Rainfall: Adelaide's rainfall for June 2006 was 12.4 mm, recorded on 6 days. This is 72.8 mm below the normal of 85.2 mm on 16 days. This has been the driest June on record, at Kent Town, and the driest in Adelaide since 1967 when only 9.1 mm was recorded. The all time driest Adelaide June was in 1958 when only 6.0 mm was reported. Last year 141.8 mm was recorded in June on 13 days. The total rainfall for the first half of 2006 was 171.8 mm, which is 72.3 mm below the long-term average of 244.1 mm. Last year 212.2 mm was recorded over the same period.

Temperatures: The mean maximum temperature for June 2006 was 15.8°C, which is 0.3°C below the normal June mean maximum of 16.1°C. This has been the coolest mean maximum for June since 2000, when the mean maximum was 15.7°C. The coolest June mean maximum was 13.5°C and occurred in 1878. The mean maximum last year was 17.8°C. The mean minimum temperature for June 2006 was 5.6°C, which is 2.5°C below the average June mean minimum of 8.1°C. This has been the coolest mean minimum for June since 1982, when the mean minimum was 5.5°C. Last June, the mean minimum was 9.1°C.

Further information:
Bruce Brooks, tel: (08) 8366 2698, e-mail: climate.sa@bom.gov.au