Western Australian Monthly Climate Summary: October 2006
A warm month in Western Australia

Wednesday 1 November, 2006

In Brief

For Western Australia as a whole, October 2006 was the 3rd warmest month in terms of minimum temperature with a mean minimum temperature anomaly of +1.73°C, whilst the mean maximum temperature was the 7th highest on record at 1.76°C above average. The average rainfall across WA was greater than normal with parts of the northern Goldfields, western Interior and eastern Gascoyne received highest October rainfall on record. The Southwest Land Division was generally drier than normal with locations in the Central West and Southeast Coastal District receiving record low October rainfall.

Some extremes and records for individual locations in WA are tabulated below.

Details

Extremes Records Notes

Extremes

Hottest day Highest temperature	43.6°C at Mardie on the 6th
Warmest days on average Highest mean daily maximum temperature	40.2°C at Fitzroy Crossing Aero
Coolest days on average Lowest mean daily maximum temperature	18.7°C at North Walpole
Coldest day Lowest daily maximum temperature	13.7°C at Rocky Gully on the 11th
Coldest night Lowest temperature	−1.0°C at Eyre on the 5th
Coolest nights on average Lowest mean daily minimum temperature	7.1°C at Wandering
Warmest nights on average Highest mean daily minimum temperature	26.5°C at Troughton Island
Warmest night Highest daily minimum temperature	29.8°C at Argyle Aerodrome on the 22nd
Wettest overall Highest total rainfall	116.6 mm at Neds Creek
Wettest day Highest daily rainfall	83.0 mm at Sturt Creek on the 27th
Highest wind gust	115 km/h at Meekatharra Airport on the 25th

Records

Record Highest Total Rainfall for October
	Total rainfall for October 2006 (mm)	Previous highest for October		Years of record	Normal for October
Yeelirrie	90.4	63.0	in 1975	79	9.7
Tuckanarra	29.2	26.2	in 1912	73	3.5
Bindi Bindi East	77.4	70.8	in 1932	63	21.3
Lorna Glen	67.8	52.0	in 2001	61	7.8
Neds Creek	116.6	75.4	in 1975	60	5.7
Woodlands	45.8	35.8	in 1975	51	4.1

Record Lowest Total Rainfall for October
	Total rainfall for October 2006 (mm)	Previous lowest for October		Years of record	Normal for October
Erinair	6.0	10.0	in 1997	39	45.0
Esperance	7.0	9.8	in 1997	38	46.3
Esperance Aero	6.4	12.6	in 1997	36	45.0
Kalbarri	0.8	1.6	in 1979	36	14.7

Record Highest Mean Daily Maximum Temperature for October
	Mean daily maximum temperature for October 2006 (°C)	Previous highest for October		Years of record	Normal for October
Corrigin	25.9	25.5	in 1969	58	22.9
Jurien Bay	25.0	24.7	in 1983	37	23.0
Narembeen	27.6	27.1	in 1969	35	24.8
Pingelly	24.8	23.9	in 2000	34	21.9
Wagin	23.7	23.4	in 2000	33	21.5
Hyden	27.1	26.9	in 2000	32	24.3

Record Highest Temperature for October
	Highest temperature in October 2006 (°C)		Previous highest for October		Years of record	Normal for October
Eyre	43.4	on the 11th	41.9	on the 30th in 1987	22	22.7

Record Highest Mean Daily Minimum Temperature for October
	Mean daily minimum temperature for October 2006 (°C)	Previous highest for October		Years of record	Normal for October
Onslow	20.5	19.5	in 1982	114	16.5
Port Hedland Airport	21.8	21.7	in 1998	59	18.2
Mardie	19.9	19.8	in 1988	47	17.2
Onslow Airport	20.5	20.0	in 2004	41	17.4
Mandora	21.7	21.6	in 1998	39	18.9
Learmonth Airport	17.9	17.5	in 1982	32	16.1

Notes

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 10 am on Wednesday 1 November 2006. Basic checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

Normals are 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 30 years of record for rainfall or 20 years of record for temperature, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.

Further information