Monday, 31 December 2007 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro - Product code IDCKGC13R0

Adelaide Metro in December 2007
Rainfall above average, and a month of temperature extremes.

Summary

Adelaide recorded above average rainfall for December, chiefly in one rain event. Temperatures were above average for the month as a whole, despite a cold lead-up to Christmas Day, and the month ended with a heatwave.

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Rainfall

Adelaide's (Kent Town) rainfall for December 2007 was 37.2 mm recorded on 7 days, most of the total occurring in one rain event on the 21st of December. This is compared to the average of 27.6 mm on 7 days. Last year, 16.8 mm was recorded in December on 5 days. The driest December on record occurred in 1904 at West Terrace when no rainfall was recorded.

The total rainfall for 2007 was 464.6 mm in 114 days. In 2006 287.6 mm on 86 days was recorded. The annual average rainfall for Adelaide at Kent Town is 555.1 mm.

See a map of total rainfall. See a map of rainfall deciles.

Temperature

The mean maximum temperature recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for December 2007 was 28.5°C, which is 1.6°C above the December mean maximum temperature of 26.9°C. The mean December maximum last year was also 28.5°C, while the record December mean maximum was 29.0°C in 2003.

The month finished with a heatwave of three days with maximum temperatures greater than 40°C. This is the first time at Kent Town that there have been three days in December with maximum temperatures greater than 40°C. There were three days greater than 40°C in December in 1941 at the West Terrace station, and several other occurrences prior to this at that station.

The hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan area was 41.8°C on the 30th at Parafield Airport, whilst the lowest was 18.0°C at Noarlunga on the 23rd.

The mean minimum temperature for December 2007 at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) was 16.4°C, which is 0.9°C above the normal December mean minimum of 15.5°C. The highest average minimum is 16.9°C in 2003. Last December the mean minimum was 15.6°C.

The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan area was 8.7°C on the 10th at Edinburgh Airport, whilst the warmest night was 27.6°C at the Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 31st.

See a map of mean maximum temperatures. See a map of maximum temperature anomalies. See a map of mean minimum temperatures. See a map of minimum temperature anomalies.

Further information

South Australian Regional Office
South Australian Climate Services Centre
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (08) 8366 2600
Email climate.sa@bom.gov.au

Extremes

Hottest day
Highest temperature		 41.8°C at Parafield Airport on the 30th
Warmest days on average
Highest mean daily maximum temperature		 29.1°C at Edinburgh RAAF
29.1°C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature		 26.8°C at Noarlunga
Coldest day
Lowest daily maximum temperature		 18.0°C at Noarlunga on the 23rd
Coldest night
Lowest temperature		 8.7°C at Edinburgh RAAF on the 10th
Coolest nights on average
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature		 15.3°C at Adelaide Airport
15.3°C at Edinburgh RAAF
Warmest nights on average
Highest mean daily minimum temperature		 16.4°C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night
Highest daily minimum temperature		 27.6°C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 31st
Wettest overall
Highest total rainfall		 37.2 mm at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Highest wind gust
 83 km/h at Adelaide Airport on the 6th

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Records



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Summaries

 In the following table, certain key sites have been highlighted to make them easier to identify.

Summary statistics for December 2007
Maximum temperatures
for December
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for December
(°C)		 Rainfall
for December
(millimetres)
Mean for
December
2007		 Diff
from
normal		 Highest for
December
2007		 Mean for
December
2007		 Diff
from
normal		 Lowest for
December
2007		 Total for
December
2007		 Normal
for
December		 Rank of
December
2007		 Fraction of
December
normal
Adelaide Plains (district 23A)
Adelaide 28.5 +1.6 41.5 30th 16.4 +0.8 10.2 23rd 37.2 27.9 high 133%
Adelaide Airport 27.2 +1.5 38.4 6th 15.3 +0.8 9.9 23rd 35.6 24.0 high 148%
Edinburgh RAAF 29.1 +1.3 41.7 30th 15.3 +0.5 8.7 10th 30.0 21.8 high 138%
Parafield Airport 29.1 +1.5 41.8 30th 15.4 +0.6 8.8 23rd 24.2 24.2 normal 100%
Mount Lofty Ranges (district 23°C)
Noarlunga 26.8 39.9 30th 15.6 9.6 10th 31.8

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Notes

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 1 pm on Monday 31 December 2007. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

Normals 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 20 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.
The median is sometimes more representative than the mean of "normal" 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, normal in decile 4 to 7, high in decile 8 or 9 and very high is in decile 10).
The Fraction of normal shows how much rain has fallen this time as a percentage of the long-term mean.

Further information

South Australian Regional Office
South Australian Climate Services Centre
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (08) 8366 2600
Email climate.sa@bom.gov.au