Monday, 4 January 2010 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC13R0
Adelaide Metro & Hills in December 2009
A warm end to the month with below average rainfall.
- Adelaide recorded below average rainfall for December.
- Maximum temperatures were more than 1.5°C above average due to the high maximums during the latter period of the month.
- Overnight minimum temperatures were near average.
Details Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top
Rainfall
Adelaide's (Kent Town) rainfall for December 2009 is 18.2mm recorded on 6 days, most of the total occurring in one rain event on the 13th of December. This is compared to the long-term average of 28.4mm on 7 days. Last year, 40.4mm was recorded in December on 8 days. The driest December on record occurred in 1904 at West Terrace when no rainfall was recorded.
With the December rainfall, the total rainfall for 2009 is 517.2mm in 118 days. In 2008 402.4mm on 123 days was recorded. The annual average rainfall for Adelaide at Kent Town is 550.6mm. (The South Australian Regional Office rainfall total is from the manually observed 203mm rain gauge. This may differ from totals on the Bureau's webpage as these may be from the automatic tipping bucket rain gauge).
Temperature
The first half of December was relatively mild with maximum temperatures in the low to mid 20s, however the latter part of the month saw temperatures mostly above average.
The mean maximum temperature recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for December 2009 is 28.5°C, which is 1.5°C above the December mean maximum temperature of 27.0°C. The mean December maximum last year is 25.5°C, while the record highest December mean maximum is 29.0°C in 2003.
During December, 7 days with maximum temperatures above 35°C were recorded at the South Australian Regional Office which is above the average number of days for December in Adelaide. The hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide & Hills area was 42.3°C on the 16th at Edinburgh RAAF.
The mean minimum temperature for December 2009 at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) is 15.9°C, which is 0.4°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 15.4°C.
The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide & hills area was 4.7°C on the 9th at Mt Barker, whilst the warmest night was 27.0°C at Noarlunga on the 31st.
Further information
- Media
- media@bom.gov.au (03) 9669 4057
- Enquiries
- helpdesk.climate@bom.gov.au
| Extremes in December 2009 | |
|---|---|
| Hottest day | 42.3 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on the 16th |
| Warmest days on average | 29.5 °C at Parafield Airport |
| Coolest days on average | 22.8 °C at Mount Lofty |
| Coldest day | 13.6 °C at Mount Lofty on the 10th |
| Coldest night | 4.7 °C at Mount Barker on the 9th |
| Coolest nights on average | 10.7 °C at Mount Barker |
| Warmest nights on average | 15.9 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town) |
| Warmest night | 27.0 °C at Noarlunga on the 31st |
| Wettest overall | 33.4 mm at Piccadilly (Woodhouse) |
| Highest wind gust | 72 km/h at Mount Lofty on the 23rd |
Details Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Summary statistics for December 2009 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum temperatures for December (°C) |
Minimum temperatures for December (°C) |
Rainfall for December (millimetres) |
||||||||||
| Mean for December 2009 |
Diff from average |
Highest for December 2009 |
Mean for December 2009 |
Diff from average |
Lowest for December 2009 |
Total for December 2009 |
Average for December |
Rank of December 2009 |
Fraction of December average |
|||
| Adelaide (Kent Town) | 28.5 | +1.5 | 41.6 | 31st | 15.9 | +0.4 | 10.3 | 9th | 18.2 | 28.4 | average | 68% |
| Adelaide Airport | 27.3 | +1.7 | 40.5 | 16th | 15.0 | +0.5 | 10.0 | 9th | 14.4 | 24.0 | average | 60% |
| Edinburgh RAAF | 28.9 | +1.1 | 42.3 | 16th | 14.2 | -0.6 | 8.1 | 4th | 20.6 | 22.4 | average | 92% |
| Mount Barker | 26.8 | +1.8 | 38.6 | 31st | 10.7 | +0.3 | 4.7 | 9th | 23.4 | 34.5 | average | 68% |
| Mount Lofty | 22.8 | 34.9 | 31st | 11.7 | 6.4 | 4th | 30.2 | |||||
| Noarlunga | 27.0 | 39.4 | 31st | 15.7 | 9.3 | 4th | 14.0 | |||||
| Parafield Airport | 29.5 | +1.9 | 41.9 | 31st | 14.2 | -0.6 | 8.0 | 4th | 13.6 | 24.3 | average | 56% |
Details Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top
Notes
A Monthly Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in Adelaide Metro & Hills using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. Later information, including data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review, usually published in the fourth week of the month.
This statement has been prepared based on information available at 9 am on Monday 4 January 2010. 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
- Media
- media@bom.gov.au (03) 9669 4057
- Enquiries
- helpdesk.climate@bom.gov.au
Unless otherwise noted, all maps, graphs and diagrams in this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
