Monday, 1 December 2014 — Seasonal Climate Summary for Australia — Product Code IDCKGC1A00

Australia in spring 2014

Temperatures Rainfall Extremes Important notes the top

In Brief

Spring 2014 was the warmest on record for Australia, for the second year running. Both mean temperatures and maximum temperatures were highest on record for the season. The national maximum temperature anomaly was +2.33 °C (previous record +2.06 °C in 2013), mean temperature anomaly +1.67 °C (previous record +1.57 °C in 2013) and minimum temperature anomaly +1.02 °C (equal-fifth-highest). Maximum temperatures were very much above average for nearly all of Australia and highest on record for large areas, mostly in Western Australia and South Australia. Minimum temperatures were above to very much average for most of Australia except the tropical north, for parts of which minima were below average.

Spring rainfall for Australia as a whole was 34% below the long-term mean. Rainfall was below average across most of Australia, except for Western Australia where rainfall was generally above average for the season. For the Murray–Darling Basin this spring was the equal-tenth-driest on record.

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Temperatures

Australia has seen persistent warmth in recent seasons, and spring 2014 was no exception. It was the warmest spring on record for Australia, with the national mean temperature anomaly of +1.67 °C not only surpassing the spring record set only last year, but indeed surpassing the largest positive mean temperature anomaly recorded for any season (previous record +1.64 °C set during autumn 2005, records start in 1910). Nine of the ten warmest springs on record have occurred in the last thirteen years (2002–2014). The warmth of spring was not only exceptional in degree, but also in extent, affecting nearly all of Australia.

A Special Climate Statement will shortly be released covering the several significant heatwaves which occurred during spring 2014 and summarising records set, although as the number of records set at individual locations is very large please refer to the separate regional summaries for tables of station records.

Maximum temperatures were above to very much above average across nearly all of Australia. Maximum temperatures were highest on record for spring across 23% of the country and highest on record for large areas in Western Australia, stretching from the Pilbara coast to the Eucla district and southeast Western Australia, across western South Australia and into western New South Wales. Highest-on-record maxima were also recorded in the southern Top End, parts of northern New South Wales and along the coast of southeast South Australia and western Victoria. The national maximum temperature anomaly for Australia as a whole was +2.33 °C (previous record +2.06 °C set in 2013). Maximum temperature anomalies for all States and the Northern Territory were ranked amongst the four warmest on record for spring.

Minimum temperatures were above to very much above average for nearly all of Australia except the tropical north. Spring minima were highest on record for a large area of southeastern Western Australia and adjacent parts of South Australia and the Central Wheat Belt District of Western Australia (in total 11% of Australia). In contrast, most of the Cape York Peninsula, the Top End, an area extending from the eastern Kimberley into the west of the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory and a small area of Queensland's Capricornia coast recorded below-average minimum temperatures for spring. The national minimum temperature anomaly was equal-fifth-highest on record at +1.02 °C. Mean minimum temperatures for spring were second-highest on record for Western Australia, with New South Wales and South Australia also placed seventh-warmest and sixth-warmest on record.

Areal average temperatures
	Maximum Temperature			Minimum Temperature			Mean Temperature
	Rank (of 105)	Anomaly (°C)	Comment	Rank (of 105)	Anomaly (°C)	Comment	Rank (of 105)	Anomaly (°C)	Comment
Australia	105	+2.33	highest (was +2.06 °C in 2013)	= 100	+1.02	equal 5th highest	105	+1.67	highest (was +1.57 °C in 2013)
Queensland	102	+1.88	4th highest (record +2.41 °C in 2013)	95	+0.84		102	+1.36	4th highest (record +1.81 °C in 2013)
New South Wales	105	+3.20	highest (was +3.04 °C in 2006)	99	+1.22	7th highest	104	+2.21	2nd highest (record +2.42 °C in 1914)
Victoria	104	+2.63	2nd highest (record +3.33 °C in 1914)	87	+0.43		103	+1.53	3rd highest (record +1.99 °C in 1914)
Tasmania	103	+1.01	3rd highest (record +1.89 °C in 1914)	88	+0.33		100	+0.66	6th highest
South Australia	105	+3.06	highest (was +2.74 °C in 2012 and 2006)	100	+1.34	6th highest	105	+2.20	highest (was +2.07 °C in 2006)
Western Australia	105	+2.26	highest (was +1.87 °C in 2006)	104	+1.38	2nd highest (record +1.54 °C in 2006)	105	+1.82	highest (was +1.71 °C in 2006)
Northern Territory	104	+1.94	2nd highest (record +2.01 °C in 2013)	73	+0.33		98	+1.13	8th highest

Rank ranges from 1 (lowest) to 105 (highest). A rank marked with ’=‘ indicates the value is tied for that rank. Anomaly is the departure from the long-term (1961–1990) average.

Temperature maps
	Mean	Anomaly	Deciles
Mean daily maximum temperatures
Mean daily minimum temperatures
Mean daily temperatures

Temperatures Rainfall Extremes Important notes the top

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Rainfall

Area-averaged spring rainfall was 34% below the long-term mean for Australia as a whole, although this disguises a pronounced difference between Western Australia and the remainder of the continent. Rainfall was above average for nearly all of Western Australia. Large areas of the central eastern interior and southern coastal region recorded seasonal rainfall in the highest ten percent of records for spring, with a few locations in the south recording their wettest spring on record (see the Western Australian seasonal summary for details).

Across eastern Australia conditions were very much drier, with Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia all recording area-averaged totals in the lowest fifteen on record for spring. In total, rainfall was in the lowest ten per cent of spring records for 15% of Australia, with the Murray–Darling Basin as a whole also recording its equal-tenth-lowest area-average total for the season. The dry conditions in eastern Australia were a result of cumulative deficits in each month on spring; above-average monthly rainfall was only recorded during August for part of central eastern Queensland and an area covering northwestern New South Wales and adjacent South Australia, and during November for parts of western Queensland. A number of individual locations recorded their driest spring on record; please see the separate regional summaries for tables of station records.

Area-average rainfall
	Rank (of 115)	Average (mm)	Departure from mean	Comment
Australia	28	48.1	−34%
Queensland	13	40.8	−52%
New South Wales	10	59.9	−52%	10th lowest; lowest since 2002
Victoria	15	112.9	−38%
Tasmania	11	267.6	−27%
South Australia	14	23.0	−55%
Western Australia	94	55.6	+35%
Northern Territory	23	33.3	−51%
Murray-Darling Basin	= 10	55.8	−51%	equal 10th lowest

Rank ranges from 1 (lowest) to 115 (highest). A rank marked with ’=‘ indicates the value is tied for that rank. Departure from mean is relative to the long-term (1961–1990) average.

Rainfall maps
	Totals	Percentages	Deciles
Total rainfall

Temperatures Rainfall Extremes Important notes the top

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Australian weather extremes in spring 2014
Hottest day	46.1 °C at Roxby Downs (Olympic Dam Aerodrome) on 22 November (SA)
Coldest day	−2.7 °C at Thredbo AWS (NSW) on 3 September
Coldest night	−8.3 °C at Thredbo AWS (NSW) on 3 September
Warmest night	32.8 °C at Moomba Airport (SA) on 23 November
Wettest day	204.6 mm at Bendalong STP (NSW) on 15 October

Temperatures Rainfall Extremes Important notes the top

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