Tuesday, 1 March 2011 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC23R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in February 2011: Well above average rainfall

  • Very much above average rainfall across the greater Adelaide area.
  • Near average maximum temperatures.
  • Warmer than average minimum temperatures.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

The February 2011 rainfall total at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 43.2mm on 5 days. This is compared to the long-term average of 12.4mm on 4 days, with the median rainfall being 7.6mm. Last year, 5.6 mm was recorded in February on 3 days.

Most of this month's rainfall occurred on the 18th February 2011 when a low pressure trough moved across South Australia, with tropical moisture feeding in from Severe Tropical Cyclone Dianne off the WA coast.

The highest rainfall recorded in the Adelaide and hills region for this month was at Oakbank with 95.6 mm.

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

Some sites had their highest total February rainfall for at least 25 years.

Temperature

Average monthly maximum temperatures were generally close to average for February overall. Maximum temperatures across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area were tending below average for most of the month, but warmer days in the last week raised the overall average.

The mean February maximum temperature recorded at the Adelaide (Kent Town) for February 2011 was 29.1°C which is 0.3°C below the long-term mean maximum temperature of 29.4°C. In comparison, February 2010 saw average maximum temperatures of 31.4°C at Adelaide (Kent Town). The record highest February mean maximum in Adelaide is 33.0°C set more than 100 years ago in 1906 at the West Terrace site.

During this month, only 3 days recorded a maximum temperature above 35°C at Kent Town, the average is 6 days. No days above 40°C were recorded; the long-term average is one day.

The hottest day at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 37.5°C on the 10th, with the hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide & hills area being 37.6°C also on the10th at Parafield Airport.

Mean minimum temperatures were 1 to 2°C above average this February, generally associated with the above average cloud cover and higher humidity levels.

The mean minimum temperature for February 2011 at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 18.6°C, which is 1.4°C above the normal February mean minimum of 17.2°C. The highest average minimum is 20.3°C recorded in 2000. Last February the mean minimum was 19.0°C.

The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide and hills area was 5.1°C on the 7th at Mt Barker, whilst the warmest night was 29.0°C at Noarlunga on the 1st.

Further information

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Extremes in February 2011
Hottest day 37.6 °C at Parafield Airport on the 10th
Warmest days on average 29.8 °C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average 23.3 °C at Mount Lofty
Coldest day 15.3 °C at Mount Lofty on the 12th
Coldest night 5.1 °C at Mount Barker on the 7th
Coolest nights on average 12.9 °C at Mount Lofty
Warmest nights on average 18.6 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night 29.0 °C at Noarlunga on the 1st
Warmest on average overall 23.8 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Coolest on average overall 18.1 °C at Mount Lofty
Wettest overall 95.6 mm at Oakbank
Highest wind gust 69 km/h at Noarlunga on the 15th

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Highest total February rainfall for at least 25 years
Total rainfall
for February 2011 (mm) 		Most recent February
at least this wet		 Years since
wetter		 Average for
February
Bolivar Treatment Works 58.2 66.2 in 1974 37 15.2
Edinburgh RAAF 58.8 75.8 in 1974 37 16.4
Adelaide (Salisbury Bowling Club) 57.0 90.6 in 1974 36 18.0


Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for February 2011
Maximum temperatures
for February
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for February
(°C)		 Rainfall
for February
(millimetres)
Mean for
February
2011		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
February
2011		 Mean for
February
2011		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
February
2011		 Total for
February
2011		 Average
for
February		 Rank of
February
2011		 Fraction of
February
average
Adelaide (Kent Town) 29.1 -0.3 37.5 10th 18.6 +1.4 12.1 6th 43.2 12.4 v high 348%
Adelaide Airport 27.6 -0.5 36.8 10th 17.7 +1.6 10.2 6th 36.8 18.2 high 202%
Edinburgh RAAF 29.2 -0.8 37.4 10th 18.1 +1.5 9.5 6th 58.8 16.4 v high 359%
Mount Barker 27.0 +0.3 36.8 2nd 13.3 +1.5 5.1 7th 76.6 25.4 v high 302%
Mount Lofty 23.3   31.8 2nd 12.9   6.6 7th 67.2
Noarlunga 27.1   36.5 10th 17.3   10.3 6th 510.2
Parafield Airport 29.8 +0.5 37.6 10th 17.9 +1.5 8.9 6th 34.8 18.1 high 192%

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 11 am on Tuesday 1 March 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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