Tuesday, 30 September 2008 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC23R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in September 2008
Very Dry!!

Summary

  • Rainfall has been well below normal in the metropolitan and hills area.
  • Maximum temperatures nearly 2°C above the September average.

An archive of previous monthly summaries for Adelaide Metro & Hills is also available, as are summaries for other states and many other climate summaries and diagnostics.

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Rainfall

Some sites had their lowest total September rainfall on record.

The South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) rainfall for September 2008 was 16.0 mm, recorded on 11 days which is the equal lowest recorded at Kent Town, previously in 1987. This is 45.7 mm below the normal of 61.7 mm on 14 days. (The South Australian Regional Office rainfall total is from the manually observed 203 mm rain gauge. This may differ from totals on the Bureau's webpage as these may be from the automatic tipping bucket rain gauge). However, the driest September rainfall recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (which includes the Kent Town and West Terrace sites) was 7.0 mm in 1951.

The total rainfall for the first 9 months of 2008 at the South Australian Regional Office was 340.2 mm, which is 108.9 mm below the long-term average of 449.1 mm. Last year 372.6 mm was recorded over the same period.

The majority of rainfall amounts recorded in the metropolitan area were between 20 mm and 30 mm whilst in the Adelaide Hills the rainfall range was between 30 mm and 40 mm. The highest reading was 78 mm at Lobethal.

The Adelaide Airport recorded its lowest rainfall of 11.6 mm for September in its 54-year history.

Some sites had their highest September temperature on record.

Temperatures

The mean maximum temperature for September 2008 was in the range of 18.5°C, in the Adelaide Hills, to 20.7°C in the northern suburbs, which is about 2°C above the normal September mean maximum temperature.

During the month, on the 27th, Parafield Airport and Edinburgh attained new highest maximum temperatures for September on record, 35.0°C and 34.9°C respectively. Their previous highest maximum temperatures occurred in 1987.

On the 27th the South Australian Regional Office recorded its 3rd highest daily maximum temperature for September of 33.7°C, the highest being 35.1°C in 1961 at the West Terrace site. The coldest day recorded at the South Australian Regional Office was on the 15th September with a maximum of 14.7°C.

The highest daily maximum temperature of 35.0°C was recorded at the Parafield Airport on the 27th, whilst the coolest daytime temperature was 12.2°C at Mount Barker, in the Adelaide Hills, on the 15th.

September's mean daily minimum temperatures in the suburbs and adjacent hills were within 1°C below the normal and ranged from 5.6°C, in the hills, to 10.1°C in the southern suburbs.

The lowest daily minimum temperature recorded at the South Australian Regional Office was 5.4°C on the morning of the 5th.

In the metropolitan and hills areas the lowest daily minimum temperature of −0.2°C was recorded at Mount Barker on the morning of the 9th, whilst the warmest night was 16.8°C at Noarlunga, in the southern suburbs, on the 26th.

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		 35.0°C at Parafield Airport on the 27th
Warmest days on average
Highest mean daily maximum temperature		 20.7°C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature		 18.5°C at Mount Barker
Coldest day
Lowest daily maximum temperature		 12.2°C at Mount Barker on the 15th
Coldest night
Lowest temperature		 −0.2°C at Mount Barker on the 9th
Coolest nights on average
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature		 5.6°C at Mount Barker
Warmest nights on average
Highest mean daily minimum temperature		 10.1°C at Noarlunga
Warmest night
Highest daily minimum temperature		 16.8°C at Noarlunga on the 26th
Wettest overall
Highest total rainfall		 78.0 mm at Lobethal
Highest wind gust
 98 km/h at Edinburgh RAAF on the 15th

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Records

Record lowest total September rainfall
Total rainfall
for September 2008 (mm) 		Previous lowest
for September		 Years of
record		 Normal for
September
Adelaide Airport 11.6 13.1 in 1962 54 45.9
Williamstown (South Para Reservoir) 27.6 28.6 in 1994 41 78.5
Adelaide (Kent Town) =16.0 16.0 in 1987 32 60.2


Record highest September temperature
Highest temperature
in September 2008 (°C) 		Previous highest
for September		 Years of
record		 Normal for
September
Parafield Airport 35.0 on the 27th 34.3 on the 26th in 1987 52 18.4
Edinburgh RAAF 34.9 on the 27th 34.4 on the 26th in 1987 36 18.3


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Summaries

This table is very wide and may not fit if printed.

Summary statistics for September 2008
Maximum temperatures
for September
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for September
(°C)		 Rainfall
for September
(millimetres)
Mean for
September
2008		 Diff
from
normal		 Highest for
September
2008		 Mean for
September
2008		 Diff
from
normal		 Lowest for
September
2008		 Total for
September
2008		 Normal
for
September		 Rank of
September
2008		 Fraction of
September
normal
Adelaide 20.3 +2.0 33.7 27th 9.6 +0.2 5.4 5th 16.0 61.7 lowest 24%
Adelaide Airport 19.7 +2.0 33.4 27th 8.4 −0.3 2.8 5th 11.6 45.9 lowest 25%
Edinburgh RAAF 20.3 +2.0 34.9 27th 7.0 −0.8 2.1 5th 21.6 47.4 low 46%
Mount Barker 18.5 +2.2 30.0 27th 5.6 −0.1 −0.2 9th 38.6 85.1 low 45%
Noarlunga 19.0   31.5 27th 10.1   6.8 24th 18.0
Parafield Airport 20.7 +2.3 35.0 27th 7.6 −0.5 1.3 5th 23.6 43.7 low 54%

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Notes

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 1 pm on Tuesday 30 September 2008. 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 long-term average ("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