Friday, 2 January 2009 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC13R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in December 2008
Mild temperatures and above average rainfall.

Summary

  • Adelaide recorded above average rainfall for December, chiefly in one rain event.
  • Maximum temperatures were below average in cool days, whilst the average minimum temperatures overnight were near 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.

jump to:  extremes  maps  records  summaries  notes  the top

Rainfall

Adelaide's (Kent Town) rainfall for December 2008 was 40.4 mm recorded on 8 days, most of the total occurring in one rain event on the 13th of December. This is compared to the average of 28.3 mm on 7 days. Last year, 37.6 mm was recorded in December on 7 days. The driest December on record occurred in 1904 at West Terrace when no rainfall was recorded.

The December total means that total rainfall for 2008 was 402.4 mm in 135 days (from manual observations). In 2007 465.0 mm on 112 days was recorded. The annual average rainfall for Adelaide at Kent Town is 550.2 mm.

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

Temperature

This December was relatively mild in contrast to last year, which saw 2007 finish in the grip of a heatwave!!

The mean maximum temperature recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for December 2008 was 25.5°C, which is 1.5°C below the December mean maximum temperature of 27.0°C. The mean December maximum last year was 28.9°C, while the record December mean maximum was 29.0°C in 2003.

On average between 3 and 4 days with maximum temperatures above 35°C could be expected in December in Adelaide as recorded at the Kent Town Regional Office, but 2008 saw no days above 35°C at the Regional Office. The last time this occurred was in 2001. The hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan area was 35.3°C on the 21st at Parafield Airport.

The mean minimum temperature for December 2008 at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) was 15.4°C, which is 0.1°C below 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 16.4°C.

The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan area was 7.6°C on the 8th at Edinburgh, whilst the warmest night was 21.1°C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 21st. Hills residents experienced some colder nights with Mount Barker recording 2.7°C as the coldest hills night, on the 8th of December.

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		 35.3°C at Parafield Airport on the 21st
Warmest days on average
Highest mean daily maximum temperature		 26.1°C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature		 23.6°C at Noarlunga
Coldest day
Lowest daily maximum temperature		 17.4°C at Mount Barker on the 13th
Coldest night
Lowest temperature		 2.7°C at Mount Barker on the 8th
Coolest nights on average
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature		 10.3°C at Mount Barker
Warmest nights on average
Highest mean daily minimum temperature		 15.4°C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night
Highest daily minimum temperature		 21.1°C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 21st
Wettest overall
Highest total rainfall		 66.8 mm at Gould Creek (Little Para Reservoir Alert
Highest wind gust
 65 km/h at Parafield Airport on the 12th

jump to:  extremes  maps  records  summaries  notes  the top

Summaries

In this table, key sites have been highlighted to make them easier to find. This table is very wide and may not fit if printed.

Summary statistics for December 2008
Maximum temperatures
for December
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for December
(°C)		 Rainfall
for December
(millimetres)
Mean for
December
2008		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
December
2008		 Mean for
December
2008		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
December
2008		 Total for
December
2008		 Average
for
December		 Rank of
December
2008		 Fraction of
December
average
Adelaide Plains (district 23A)
Adelaide 25.5 −1.5 34.5 21st 15.4 −0.1 9.4 8th 37.2 28.3 high 131%
Adelaide Airport 24.4 −1.3 33.9 21st 15.3 +0.9 7.7 8th 28.8 24.1 average 120%
Edinburgh RAAF 25.7 −2.1 34.7 21st 14.9 +0.1 7.6 8th 48.2 22.5 very high 214%
Parafield Airport 26.1 −1.6 35.3 21st 14.6 −0.3 8.5 8th 39.6 24.4 high 162%
Mount Lofty Ranges (district 23°C)
Mount Barker 23.9 −1.2 32.4 26th 10.3 −0.1 2.7 8th 35.6 34.5 average 103%
Noarlunga 23.6   33.1 21st 14.8   9.3 8th 31.6

jump to:  extremes  maps  records  summaries  notes  the top

Notes

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 11 am on Friday 2 January 2009. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

Averages 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 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, 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 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