Tuesday, 1 September 2009 - Monthly Climate Summary for Western Australia - Product code IDCKGC21R0

Western Australia in August 2009
Second warmest August on record

Summary

  • Below average rainfall for WA.
  • Second warmest August for WA in terms of mean maximum temperature.
  • Very much above average mean minimum temperature for WA.

An archive of previous monthly summaries for Western Australia is also available, as are summaries for other states and many other climate summaries and diagnostics.

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Details

Rainfall

August rainfall was below to very much below average over large parts of WA, including the inland Gascoyne, Southwest, South Coastal, Southeast Coastal and Great Southern, as well as the seasonally dry areas including the Pilbara, Interior and Goldfields. Small patches of above average rainfall were observed in the coastal Kimberley and parts of the Eucla (see August rainfall decile map).

Averaged across the state, August rainfall was in the below average range.

Maximum temperature

With the exception of the southern Southwest Land Division, and parts of the coastal Gascoyne, Pilbara and west Kimberley, mean maximum temperatures for August were above to very much above average across WA, and parts of the Interior, east Pilbara and southeast Kimberley saw highest on record mean maxima for August, with up to 6°C warmer than normal mean maxima recorded in the Interior (see August maximum temperature anomaly map). Wyndham Aerodrome recorded 39.7°C on the 31st, which was the second highest temperature recorded in August for WA and Australia.

Averaged across the state, the mean maximum temperature was the second warmest August on record at 2.2°C above average. The warmest August since comparable records commenced in 1950 was in 2006 when the WA mean maximum was 3.0ºC above average.

Minimum temperature

Mean minimum temperatures for August were above to very much above average across large parts of the Gascoyne, Pilbara, southern Kimberley, Interior and south coast districts, with up to 4ºC above normal mean minimum temperatures in the northern and eastern Interior (see August minimum temperature anomaly map).

Averaged across the state as a whole, the WA mean minimum temperature for August was the fifth warmest on record, at 1.2ºC above average, and the warmest since August 1998 when the mean minimum for WA was 1.8ºC above average.

Further information

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

Extremes

Hottest day
Highest temperature		 39.7°C at Wyndham Aero on the 31st
Warmest days on average
Highest mean daily maximum temperature		 35.3°C at Wyndham Aero
Coolest days on average
Lowest mean daily maximum temperature		 14.6°C at Rocky Gully
Coldest day
Lowest daily maximum temperature		 9.4°C at Rocky Gully on the 28th
Coldest night
Lowest temperature		 −3.6°C at Eyre on the 26th
Coolest nights on average
Lowest mean daily minimum temperature		 4.5°C at Eyre
Warmest nights on average
Highest mean daily minimum temperature		 23.6°C at Troughton Island
20.1°C at Truscott (mainland)
Warmest night
Highest daily minimum temperature		 26.3°C at Troughton Island on the 31st
25.2°C at Argyle Aero on the 31st (mainland)
Wettest overall
Highest total rainfall		 226.8 mm at Mundaring
Wettest day
Highest daily rainfall		 63.8 mm at Dwellingup on the 14th
Highest wind gust
 117 km/h at Cape Leeuwin on the 14th

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Records



Record highest August temperature
Highest temperature
in August 2009 (°C) 		Previous highest
for August		 Years of
record		 Average for
August
Halls Creek Airport 37.2 on the 31st 36.8 on the 28th in 1996 62 29.9
Warmun 39.0 on the 31st 38.8 on the 27th in 1968 48 32.2


Record highest August mean daily maximum temperature
Mean daily maximum
temperature
for August 2009 (°C) 		Previous highest
for August		 Years of
record		 Average for
August
Halls Creek Airport 33.0 32.6 in 1981 61 29.9
Giles Meteorological Office 26.9 25.9 in 1977 53 22.5
Warmun 34.6 34.5 in 1971 47 32.2
Telfer Aero 31.2 30.9 in 2006 35 28.2
Warburton Airfield 27.9 26.4 in 2006 35 22.9



Record highest August daily minimum temperature
Highest daily minimum
temperature
in August 2009 (°C) 		Previous highest
for August		 Years of
record		 Average for
August
Telfer Aero 22.4 on the 21st 21.1 on the 29th in 2000 36 12.4


Record highest August mean daily minimum temperature
Mean daily minimum
temperature
for August 2009 (°C) 		Previous highest
for August		 Years of
record		 Average for
August
Giles Meteorological Office 12.1 10.8 in 1998 53 8.6
Telfer Aero 14.6 14.5 in 1990 35 12.4



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Notes

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 11 am on Tuesday 1 September 2009. 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 30 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.
The median is sometimes more representative than the mean of long-term average rain.

Further information

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