Monday, 1 February 2010 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC23R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in January 2010

Early heatwave and below average rainfall.

  • Five day heatwave with temperatures above 40°C.
  • Rainfall in the Adelaide and hills region is mostly near average with some locations registering below average totals.
  • Overnight minimum temperatures were above average.

Details Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

The rainfall recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for January 2010 is 9.2mm on 3 days. This is compared to the long-term average of 19.1mm on 4 days. Last year, 1.2mm was recorded in January on 2 days. Since 1839 there has been six occasions that no rainfall was recorded during January, the most recent being in 1957.

With the January rainfall, the total rainfall for summer (2009/2010), so far, is 27.4mm in 9 days. During the same period last summer 41.6mm on 10 days was recorded. The summer average rainfall for Adelaide at Kent Town is 60.5mm. (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).

The highest rainfall recorded in the Adelaide and hills region for January was at Inglewood with 25.6mm.

Temperature

Daytime temperatures were mainly in the high 20s and low 30s which is near the long-term average but a heatwave early in the month, with maximum temperatures exceeding 40°C on several days, raised the average maximum temperature recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for January 2010 to 31.4°C, which is 2.3°C above the January mean maximum temperature of 29.1°C. This is the 14th hottest January, at the South Australian Regional Office, since temperature records began in 1887. The mean January maximum last year is 32.0°C, while the record highest January mean maximum at the South Australian Regional Office is 34.2°C more than 100 years ago in 1908.

During January, 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 Adelaide.

The hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide & hills area was 44.5°C on the 11th at Edinburgh RAAF.

The mean minimum temperature for January 2010 at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) is 18.1°C, which is 1.1°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 17.9°C.

The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide and hills area was 6.5°C on the 19th at Mt Barker, whilst the warmest night was 28.9°C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 11th.

Further information

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Extremes in January 2010
Hottest day 44.5 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on the 11th
Warmest days on average 31.6 °C at Edinburgh RAAF
Coolest days on average 26.1 °C at Mount Lofty
Coldest day 17.5 °C at Mount Lofty on the 18th
Coldest night 6.5 °C at Mount Barker on the 19th
Coolest nights on average 12.4 °C at Mount Barker
Warmest nights on average 18.1 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night 28.9 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 11th
Wettest overall 25.6 mm at Inglewood
Highest wind gust 69 km/h at Edinburgh RAAF on the 11th

Details Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for January 2010
Maximum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Rainfall
for January
(millimetres)
Mean for
January
2010		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
January
2010		 Mean for
January
2010		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
January
2010		 Total for
January
2010		 Average
for
January		 Rank of
January
2010		 Fraction of
January
average
Adelaide (Kent Town) 31.4 +2.3 42.8 11th 18.1 +1.1 11.2 19th 9.2 19.1 average 50%
Adelaide Airport 29.6 +1.6 41.0 10th 16.8 +0.9 10.7 19th 10.0 17.6 average 57%
Edinburgh RAAF 31.6 +1.8 44.5 11th 16.8 +0.4 9.6 19th 18.8 20.7 average 91%
Mount Barker 30.2 +3.1 41.0 11th 12.4 +0.6 6.5 19th 16.4 25.9 average 63%
Mount Lofty 26.1   36.8 11th 13.4   7.6 19th 18.2
Noarlunga 29.1   40.3 10th 17.3   12.5 18th 10.8
Parafield Airport 31.5 +2.0 42.4 10th 16.3 0.0 9.1 19th 3.8 20.9 low 18%

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 10 am on Monday 1 February 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
(03) 9669 4057
Enquiries

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