Monday, 31 January 2011 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC23R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in January 2011: A hot finish to the month.

  • Near average temperatures for much of the month, until a hot last week left the month as a whole warmer than average.
  • Near, if slightly drier than average, rainfall.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

The rainfall recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for January 2011 is 17.4mm on 4 days. This is compared to the long-term average of 19.3mm on 4 days, with the median rainfall being 20.6mm. Last year, 9.2mm was recorded in January on 3 days. Most of this months rainfall occurred on the 13th and 14th January 2011 triggered by a slow moving low pressure system to the south of the state at this time.

With this January rainfall the total rainfall for summer 2010/2011 so far is 104.4mm on 16 days. During the same period last summer 27.4mm on 9 days was recorded. The average rainfall for Adelaide at Kent Town for summer as a whole is 59.7mm. The highest rainfall recorded in the Adelaide and hills region for this month was at Crafers with 26.6mm.

The Adelaide official climate rainfall record is taken from the manually observed 203mm rain gauge at the Kent Town site of the South Australian Regional Office. These figures may differ from totals on some Bureau web pages as these may be from automatic tipping bucket rain gauge readings.

Temperature

Temperatures were generally cooler than average for much of the month, apart from a burst of warmer weather around the end of the first week. Hot conditions over the interior of the state moved down over the Adelaide region near the end of the month, pushing up the average temperatures for the month as a whole to warmer than average.

The average maximum temperature recorded at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) for January 2011 is 30.6°C which is 1.4°C above the January mean maximum temperature of 29.2°C. In comparison, January 2010 saw average maximum temperatures of 31.4°C. The record highest January mean maximum at the South Australian Regional Office is 34.2°C set more than 100 years ago in 1908 at the West Terrace site.

During this month, 6 days with maximum temperatures above 35°C were recorded at the South Australian Regional Office which is the average number of days for January in Adelaide, with 2 days above 40°C, also average conditions for this time of the year. The hottest day at the Adelaide (Kent Town) site was 42.9°C on the 31st, with the hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide & hills area being 43.0°C on the 31st at Edinburgh Airport.

The mean minimum temperature for January 2010 at the South Australian Regional Office (Kent Town) is 18.3°C, which is 1.3°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 18.1°C.

The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide and hills area was 6.4°C on the 3rd at Mt Lofty, whilst the warmest night was 28.2°C at both Adelaide (Kent Town) and Noarlunga on the 31st.

Further information

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Extremes in January 2011
Hottest day 43.0 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on the 31st
Warmest days on average 30.9 °C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average 27.9 °C at Mount Barker
Coldest day 16.6 °C at Mount Lofty on the 11th
Coldest night 6.4 °C at Mount Lofty on the 3rd
Coolest nights on average 13.2 °C at Mount Barker
Warmest nights on average 18.3 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night 28.2 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town) on the 31st
28.2 °C at Noarlunga on the 31st
Warmest on average overall 24.5 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Coolest on average overall 20.4 °C at Mount Barker
Wettest overall 26.6 mm at Crafers (Mt Lofty)
Highest wind gust 61 km/h at Noarlunga on the 9th

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top



Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for January 2011
Maximum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Rainfall
for January
(millimetres)
Mean for
January
2011		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
January
2011		 Mean for
January
2011		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
January
2011		 Total for
January
2011		 Average
for
January		 Rank of
January
2011		 Fraction of
January
average
Adelaide (Kent Town) 30.6 +1.4 42.9 31st 18.3 +1.3 13.2 19th 17.4 19.3 average 90%
Adelaide Airport 28.6 +0.6 41.9 31st 17.1 +1.2 11.6 4th 16.8 17.6 average 95%
Edinburgh RAAF 30.4 +0.5 43.0 31st 17.2 +0.8 11.5 18th 17.8 20.6 average 86%
Mount Barker 27.9 +0.7 40.0 30th 13.2 +1.4 7.6 4th 17.4 25.8 average 67%
Noarlunga 28.0   41.1 31st 17.1   12.4 3rd 14.6
Parafield Airport 30.5 +1.0 42.8 31st 16.8 +0.5 12.4 5th 17.2 20.9 average 82%

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 4 pm on Monday 31 January 2011. 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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