Monday, 2 May 2011 - Monthly Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC23R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in April 2011: Below average rainfall

  • April rainfall below average.
  • Maximum and minimum temperatures within 1°C of average.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

April rainfall was below average across the wider Adelaide area, with most locations receiving just 30 to 50 percent of their long-term April average. Most of the month's rainfall was received mid month.

The April 2011 rainfall total at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 13.6mm on 7 days. This is near a third of the long-term average of 40.9mm on 8 days (the median rainfall for April is 34.6mm). Last year, 49.6 mm was recorded in April on 10 days.

This is the 10th driest April recorded at Adelaide (Kent Town), the driest being in 1981 with 0.8mm. At the older West Terrace site, a zero April rainfall was recorded in April 1945.

The lowest rainfall recorded in the Adelaide and hills region for this month was at Gawler with 5.2 mm.

The Adelaide (Kent Town) site has had its third wettest rainfall from January to April on record with 152.2 mm. The wettest first four months was in 1983 with 225.4 mm. Looking across the complete Adelaide rainfall record for Kent Town and West Terrace, the wettest first four months at West Terrace was in 1889 with 244.2 mm.

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

 

Temperature

Average monthly maximum temperatures were generally within 1°C of average for April across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area.

The mean April maximum temperature recorded at Adelaide (Kent Town) for April 2011 was 22.8°C which is 0.2°C above the long-term mean maximum temperature. In comparison, April 2010 saw average maximum temperatures of 24.1°C at Adelaide (Kent Town).

The record lowest April mean maximum in Adelaide is 19.7°C set in 1996 at Kent Town.

During April 2011, 1 day recorded a maximum temperature above 30°C at Kent Town, the average is 2 days.

The coldest day at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 16.3°C on the 10th, with the coldest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide & hills area being 10.2°C also on the 10th at Mt Lofty.

Mean minimum temperatures were generally within 1.0°C of average this April, but tending on the cool side.

The mean minimum temperature for April 2011 at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 12.3°C, which is 0.1°C below the long-term mean minimum temperature.

The record lowest April mean minimum in Adelaide is 9.8°C set in 1999 at Kent Town. Last April the mean minimum was 14.3°C.

The coldest minimum temperature recorded in the Adelaide and hills area was 4.8°C on the 6th and again on the 23rd at Mt Barker, whilst the warmest night was 21.7°C at Noarlunga on the 8th.

Further information

Media
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Extremes in April 2011
Hottest day 32.0 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on the 8th
Warmest days on average 23.3 °C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average 16.7 °C at Mount Lofty
Coldest day 10.2 °C at Mount Lofty on the 10th
Coldest night 4.8 °C at Mount Barker on the 6th
4.8 °C at Mount Barker on the 23rd
Coolest nights on average 9.1 °C at Mount Barker
Warmest nights on average 13.2 °C at Noarlunga
Warmest night 21.7 °C at Noarlunga on the 8th
Warmest on average overall 17.6 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
17.6 °C at Noarlunga
Coolest on average overall 13.1 °C at Mount Lofty
Wettest overall 34.4 mm at Crafers (Mt Lofty)
Driest overall 5.2 mm at Gawler
Highest wind gust 61 km/h at Adelaide Airport on the 10th

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top



Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for April 2011
Maximum temperatures
for April
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for April
(°C)		 Rainfall
for April
(millimetres)
Mean for
April
2011		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
April
2011		 Mean for
April
2011		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
April
2011		 Total for
April
2011		 Average
for
April		 Rank of
April
2011		 Fraction of
April
average
Adelaide (Kent Town) 22.8 +0.2 31.7 8th 12.3 -0.1 7.9 12th 13.6 40.9 low 33%
Adelaide Airport 22.3 +0.1 31.1 8th 11.5 -0.3 7.0 24th 18.0 35.3 average 51%
Edinburgh RAAF 23.0 0.0 32.0 8th 10.8 -0.9 6.1 12th 11.2 31.1 low 36%
Mount Barker 19.6 -0.9 27.8 8th 9.1 +0.8 4.8 6th 20.2 58.5 low 35%
Mount Lofty 16.7   25.1 8th 9.6   5.6 10th 28.8
Noarlunga 22.1   31.2 8th 13.2   9.4 3rd 6.8
Parafield Airport 23.3 +0.7 31.9 8th 10.6 -1.2 5.5 4th 17.8 39.6 low 45%

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 2 May 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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