Friday, 1 February 2013 - Monthly Climate Summary for Melbourne Metropolitan Area and Environs - Product code IDCKGC2xx0

Melbourne Metropolitan Area and Environs in January 2013: Rainfall much less than that usually received.

Located in the Central District at the head of Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne is Victoria's State Capital. Here, overnight minimum temperatures were much warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 16°C (departure from normal 1.7°C). That the overnight temperatures in Melbourne are higher than those in most surrounding localities is a consequence of the city being under the influence of the effect of urbanisation (cities are usually warmer than their rural surroundings, especially at night, because of heat stored in bricks and concrete and trapped between close-packed buildings). Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 27.3°C (departure from normal 1.4°C). Total rainfall for the month was 8 mm, this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 47.3 mm, percentage of normal received 17%).

Selected Melbourne suburbs

In the suburb of Essendon, which is located some 15 kilometres to the northwest of the city centre, overnight minimum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 14.5°C (departure from normal 1.2°C). Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 27.5°C (departure from normal 1.2°C). Total rainfall for the month was 8 mm, this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 42.8 mm, percentage of normal received 19%).

The suburb of Laverton is located some 30 kilometres to the southwest of the city centre, and is often under the drying influence of the rain shadow from the ranges of western Victoria. Here, overnight minimum temperatures were slightly warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 14.2°C (departure from normal 0.5°C). Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 26.7°C (departure from normal 1.1°C). Total rainfall for the month was 6.8 mm, this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 39.3 mm, percentage of normal received 17%).

In the suburb of Bundoora, which is located some 20 kilometres to the northeast of the city centre, overnight minimum temperatures were near to those usually experienced and averaged 14.4°C (departure from normal 0.3°C). Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 27.6°C (departure from normal 1.1°C). Total rainfall for the month was 3.7 mm, this being much less than that usually recorded  (normal 46.5 mm, percentage of normal received 8%).

In the suburb of Moorabbin, which is located some 20 kilometres to the southeast of the city centre, overnight minimum temperatures were near to those usually experienced and averaged 14.1°C (departure from normal 0°C). Daytime maximum temperatures were warmer than those usually experienced and averaged 26.6°C (departure from normal 0.9°C). Total rainfall for the month was 2.4 mm, this being much less than that usually recorded (normal 44.5 mm, percentage of normal received 5%).

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

Some sites had their lowest total January rainfall on record.
Extremes in January 2013
Hottest day 43.0 °C at Avalon Airport on the 4th
Warmest days on average 29.2 °C at Coldstream
Coolest days on average 24.9 °C at Cerberus
Coldest day 18.5 °C at Cranbourne Botanic Gardens on the 29th
Coldest night 5.0 °C at Coldstream on the 15th
Coolest nights on average 10.9 °C at Coldstream
Warmest nights on average 16.0 °C at Melbourne Regional Office
Warmest night 24.7 °C at Melbourne Regional Office on the 18th
Warmest on average overall 21.7 °C at Melbourne Regional Office
Coolest on average overall 19.0 °C at Cerberus
Wettest overall 9.8 mm at Cranbourne Botanic Gardens
Highest wind gust 81 km/h at Melbourne Airport on the 31st

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Record lowest total January rainfall
Total rainfall
for January 2013 (mm) 		Previous driest
for January		 Years of
record		 Average for
January
Coldstream 3.6 8.6 in 2001 19 43.5


Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for January 2013
Maximum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for January
(°C)		 Rainfall
for January
(millimetres)
Mean for
January
2013		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
January
2013		 Mean for
January
2013		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
January
2013		 Total for
January
2013		 Average
for
January		 Rank of
January
2013		 Fraction of
January
average
Avalon Airport 26.9 +0.7 43.0 4th 13.1 -0.9 8.6 15th 3.4 30.6 v low 11%
Bundoora (Latrobe University) 27.6 +1.1 40.8 4th 14.4 +0.3 8.2 30th 3.7 46.5 v low 8%
Cerberus 24.9 +0.6 40.7 4th 13.1 -0.7 7.3 15th 4.0 37.6 low 11%
Coldstream 29.2 +1.5 40.1 17th 10.9 -0.9 5.0 15th 3.6 43.5 lowest 8%
Cranbourne Botanic Gardens 25.4 +0.1 39.5 17th 13.0 -0.5 8.4 15th 9.8 53.0 v low 18%
Essendon Airport 27.5 +1.2 41.7 17th 14.5 +1.1 9.6 30th 8.0 42.8 v low 19%
Laverton RAAF 26.7 +1.1 41.7 4th 14.2 +0.5 8.0 30th 6.8 39.3 v low 17%
Melbourne Airport 28.0 +1.7 41.5 4th 13.7 0.0 8.5 30th 9.4 41.1 low 23%
Melbourne Regional Office 27.3 +1.4 41.1 4th 16.0 +1.7 12.2 30th 8.0 47.3 v low 17%
Moorabbin Airport 26.6 +0.9 41.5 4th 14.1 0.0 8.5 15th 2.4 44.5 v low 5%
Scoresby Research Institute 28.2 +2.1 40.1 17th 13.6 +0.4 8.9 15th 3.8 52.7 v low 7%
Viewbank 28.6 +1.0 41.0 17th 14.1 -0.2 8.9 15th 4.2 40.7 v low 10%

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Notes

A Monthly Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in Melbourne Metropolitan Area and Environs 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 Friday 1 February 2013. 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 10 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.

The ACORN-SAT dataset is being used for temperature area averages from December 2012 onwards. The major change from earlier datasets is that the ACORN-SAT dataset commences in 1910, rather than 1950, and hence rankings are calculated using a larger set of years.

Further information

Media
(03) 9669 4057
Enquiries

Creative Commons By Attribution logo Unless otherwise noted, all maps, graphs and diagrams in this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Climate