Monday, 2 February 2009 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC23R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in January 2009
Temperatures Soared to Near Record Levels.

Summary

  • Very little rain in January.
  • Month ends with heatwave conditions.
  • Record overnight minimum of 33.9°C in Adelaide.

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 January rainfall on record.

Adelaide's (Kent Town) rainfall for January 2009 was 1.2 mm recorded on 2 days, which is the 15th lowest January rainfall total in the 171 years of records. This is compared to the average of 19.6 mm on 4 days. The most recent drier January occurred in 1992 when 0.4 mm was recorded. Last year 9.0 mm was recorded in January on 3 days. Since 1839there has been six occasions that no rainfall was recorded during January, the most recent being in 1957.

Some sites had their lowest total January rainfall for at least 25 years.

Temperature

After a near average start to January the month finished in heatwave conditions where the maximum temperature exceeded 40°C during the last 5 days.

The mean maximum temperature recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for January 2009 was 32.0°C, which is 2.9°C above the January mean maximum temperature of 29.1°C. This is the seventh hottest January since records began in 1887 and the hottest January since 2001 when the mean maximum temperature was 33.7°C. The mean January maximum last year was 31.1°C, while the record January mean maximum is 34.2°C in 1908.

On average between 5 and 6 days with maximum temperatures above 35°C could be expected during January in Adelaide, but 2009 saw 10 days above 35°C. The hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan area was 45.8°C on the 28th at Edinburgh.

The mean minimum temperature for January 2009 at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) was 17.9°C, which is 0.9°C above the normal January mean minimum of 17.0°C. The highest average minimum is 20.3°C in 2001. Last January the mean minimum was 17.5°C.

The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan area was 5.5°C on the 3rd at Mount Barker, whilst the warmest night was 33.9°C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 29th, which is the highest overnight minimum recorded at the Adelaide Regional Office for all months.

Some sites had their highest January temperature on record.

Some sites had their warmest January night (highest daily minimum temperature) on record.

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		 45.8°C at Edinburgh RAAF on the 28th
Warmest days on average
Highest mean daily maximum temperature		 32.4°C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature		 29.8°C at Adelaide Airport
Coldest day
Lowest daily maximum temperature		 22.0°C at Noarlunga on the 8th
Coldest night
Lowest temperature		 5.5°C at Mount Barker on the 3rd
Coolest nights on average
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature		 12.0°C at Mount Barker
Warmest nights on average
Highest mean daily minimum temperature		 17.9°C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night
Highest daily minimum temperature		 33.9°C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 29th
Wettest overall
Highest total rainfall		 3.0 mm at Piccadilly (Woodhouse)
Highest wind gust
 69 km/h at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 31st

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Records

Record lowest total January rainfall
Total rainfall
for January 2009 (mm) 		Previous lowest
for January		 Years of
record		 Average for
January
Lyndoch 0.0 = 0.0 in 1992 122 18.9
Adelaide Airport 0.0 0.3 in 1957 54 17.7
Williamstown (South Para Reservoir) 0.4 1.8 in 2008 42 24.8
Edinburgh RAAF 0.2 = 0.2 in 1992 37 20.7
Adelaide (Hope Valley Reservoir) 0.4 1.0 in 1992 30 19.8


Record highest January temperature
Highest temperature
in January 2009 (°C) 		Previous highest
for January		 Years of
record		 Average for
January
Adelaide Airport 44.0 on the 28th = 44.0 on the 30th in 1968 54 27.9
Mount Barker 44.5 on the 28th 43.0 on the 23rd in 1982 52 27.1
Adelaide (Kent Town) 45.7 on the 28th 44.2 on the 23rd in 1982 32 29.0


Record highest January daily minimum temperature
Highest daily minimum
temperature
in January 2009 (°C) 		Previous highest
for January		 Years of
record		 Average for
January
Mount Barker 28.0 on the 29th 27.3 on the 21st in 1997 52 11.8
Adelaide (Kent Town) 33.9 on the 29th 33.5 on the 24th in 1982 32 17.0


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Summaries

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

Summary statistics for January 2009
Maximum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Rainfall
for January
(millimetres)
Mean for
January
2009		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
January
2009		 Mean for
January
2009		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
January
2009		 Total for
January
2009		 Average
for
January		 Rank of
January
2009		 Fraction of
January
average
Adelaide 32.0 +2.9 45.7 28th 17.9 +0.9 13.3 10th 1.2 19.6 very low 5%
Adelaide Airport 29.8 +1.9 44.0 28th 16.4 +0.5 10.8 3rd 0 17.7 lowest 0%
Edinburgh RAAF 32.2 +2.4 45.8 28th 16.1 −0.3 11.1 10th 0.2 20.7 lowest 1%
Mount Barker 31.6 +4.4 44.5 28th 12.0 +0.2 5.5 3rd 0.4 25.9 very low 2%
Noarlunga 30.1   44.6 28th 17.1   11.9 9th 0.4
Parafield Airport 32.4 +3.0 45.6 28th 16.0 −0.3 11.0 17th 0.4 21.6 very low 2%

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Notes

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 9 am on Monday 2 February 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