Monday, 2 April 2007 - Monthly Climate Summary for Western Australia - Product code IDCKGC11R0

Western Australia in March 2007

A wet month for the north and east

In Brief

For Western Australia as a whole, March 2007 was the 4th wettest March on record since at least 1900. Three tropical cyclones George, Jacob and Kara brought substantial rain to large areas of the Kimberley, Pilbara, Interior and Eucla. Some locations registered their highest March rainfall on record.

Extreme high temperatures in early March broke many local records, and notably Carnarvon Airport recorded a maximum temperature of 47.8°C, equaling the hottest temperature recorded in WA in March. Despite this, maximum temperatures were well below average away from the wet coast and the mean maximum temperature for WA was 1.39°C below the long term average (1961−1990).

The mean minimum temperature for WA was near average although many locations saw record cold nights in the last week of March.

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

Extremes

Hottest day Highest temperature	47.8°C at Carnarvon Airport on the 6th
Warmest days on average Highest mean daily maximum temperature	40.1°C at Emu Creek Station
Coolest days on average Lowest mean daily maximum temperature	22.8°C at Albany
Coldest day Lowest daily maximum temperature	14.5°C at Rocky Gully on the 27th
Coldest night Lowest temperature	0.9°C at Wandering on the 28th
Coolest nights on average Lowest mean daily minimum temperature	9.9°C at Collie East
Warmest nights on average Highest mean daily minimum temperature	26.9°C at Troughton Island
Warmest night Highest daily minimum temperature	31.7°C at Paraburdoo Aero on the 7th
Wettest overall Highest total rainfall	682.1 mm at Cygnet Bay
Wettest day Highest daily rainfall	285.0 mm at Pardoo Station on the 27th

Jump to: Extremes Records Notes the top

Records

Record highest total March rainfall
	Total rainfall for March 2007 (mm)	Previous highest for March		Years of record	Normal for March
Marble Bar	417.4 (all time record)	388.6	in 1941	113	56.7
Warmun	445.5	427.7	in 1960	99	118.0
Pardoo Station	630.1	569.8	in 1934	98	64.0
Warrawagine	454.6	401.1	in 1899	97	62.4
Port Hedland Airport	411.4	250.5	in 1956	65	48.6
Mount Amhurst	285.8	240.4	in 1941	51	63.4
Cygnet Bay	682.1	445.4	in 1977	43	169.0
Country Downs	518.4	508.6	in 2000	35	180.4
Telfer Aero	466.0	414.2	in 2004	34	81.7

Record highest March mean daily maximum temperature
	Mean daily maximum temperature for March 2007 (°C)	Previous highest for March		Years of record	Normal for March
Kalbarri	35.3	34.9	in 2006	33	32.4

Record lowest March mean daily maximum temperature
	Mean daily maximum temperature for March 2007 (°C)	Previous lowest for March		Years of record	Normal for March
Mandora	33.3	33.5	in 2000	37	36.8

Record highest March temperature
	Highest temperature in March 2007 (°C)		Previous highest for March		Years of record	Normal for March
Cape Leeuwin	39.9	on the 7th	38.2	on the 3rd in 1956	101	22.6
Geraldton Airport	45.2	on the 6th	44.3	on the 1st in 1961	65	30.9
Carnarvon Airport	47.8	on the 6th	45.3	on the 2nd in 1977	61	31.4
Cape Naturaliste	37.4	on the 6th	36.7	on the 3rd in 2001	51	24.4
Manjimup	41.2	on the 7th	41.0	on the 23rd in 2005	48	24.7
Lancelin	43.6	on the 7th	42.7	on the 22nd in 2004	40	28.3
Jurien Bay	44.0	on the 6th & 7th	42.1	on the 25th in 1985	38	29.2
Mullewa	44.0	on the 5th	43.5	on the 4th in 1973	37	33.7
Gascoyne Junction	46.5	on the 6th	46.1	on the 4th in 1970	36	37.4
Eneabba	44.9	on the 5th	44.0	on the 22nd in 2004	33	33.4
Kalbarri	47.2	on the 6th	43.1	on the 1st in 1980	33	32.4
Jarrahwood	41.2	on the 7th	40.5	on the 23rd in 2005	30	27.5

Record lowest March daily maximum temperature
	Lowest daily maximum temperature in March 2007 (°C)		Previous lowest for March		Years of record	Normal for March
Eucla	18.1	on the 12th	18.3	on the 31st in 1960	48	25.1
Mandora	24.5	on the 28th	25.6	on the 26th in 1967	38	36.8

Record highest March daily minimum temperature
	Highest daily minimum temperature in March 2007 (°C)		Previous highest for March		Years of record	Normal for March
Pearce RAAF	28.0	on the 8th	27.2	on the 13th in 1944	44	15.9
Lancelin	28.3	on the 6th	26.4	on the 6th in 1998	40	16.7
Mount Barker	24.8	on the 8th	23.9	on the 7th in 2001	37	12.4
Mullewa	28.5	on the 6th	28.0	on the 9th in 1996	37	18.2

Record lowest March temperature
	Lowest temperature in March 2007 (°C)		Previous lowest for March		Years of record	Normal for March
Perth Airport	3.1	on the 27th	4.0	on the 8th in 2004	63	15.9
Carnarvon Airport	13.2	on the 29th	13.4	on the 31st in 1968	61	22.1
Corrigin	3.5	on the 28th	4.2	on the 25th in 1991	51	14.3
Katanning Comparison	1.5	on the 29th	3.6	on the 26th in 1972	51	12.6
Norseman	3.3	on the 29th	3.8	on the 30th in 1968	51	14.5
Bencubbin	5.6	on the 28th	6.0	on the 28th in 1968	48	16.3
Jurien Bay	5.6	on the 28th	6.8	on the 27th in 1972	38	16.6
Beverley	2.6	on the 28th	3.3	on the 24th in 2001	37	14.7
Karnet	4.1	on the 28th	4.2	on the 24th in 2001	36	14.2
Pingelly	3.2	on the 28th	4.0	on the 24th in 2001	36	14.7
Yeelirrie	6.0	on the 29th	6.1	on the 26th in 2001	34	18.3
Jarrahwood	1.0	on the 29th	1.3	on the 22nd in 1977	30	11.6

Jump to: Extremes Records Notes the top

Notes

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 8 am on Monday 2 April 2007. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

Normals 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 30 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.
The median is sometimes more representative than the mean of "normal" rain.

Further information

Yanhui Blockley & Glenn Cook
Western Australia Climate Services Centre
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (08) 9263 2222
Email climate.wa@bom.gov.au