Monday, 1 June 2020 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Greater Brisbane - Product code IDCKGC24L0
Greater Brisbane in autumn 2020: drier than usual, near-average temperatures
Autumn rainfall was below average in Greater Brisbane, with most locations reporting less than 50% of their autumn average.
Mean maximum temperatures were close to or slightly above average for autumn. Mean minimum temperatures were close to or slightly cooler than average. A cold outbreak at the end of May saw some very cool days across the southeast.
Dry autumn overall
- Overall, rainfall was below average in Greater Brisbane, with most location reporting less than 50% of their average autumn rainfall
- March rainfall was close to average at most locations, with much of the rain falling in the first half of the month
- A dry April followed, with below to well below average in Greater Brisbane, and inland locations reporting around 10% or less of their April average
- It was a dry finish to the season, with below average May rainfall across Greater Brisbane, and most locations reported less than 25% of the May average
Temperatures close to average for days, and slightly cooler than usual for nights
- Mean maximum temperatures were close to the long-term average for most locations in autumn, with some inland sites reporting days slightly warmer than usual
- Maximum temperatures were close to average on most days during March, but there were some cool days in the first half of the month, especially during periods of rainfall
- Both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were warmer than average for April, with record warm April mean maximum temperatures at Brisbane and Logan
- There was a cold outbreak on 23 May, with a number of sites reporting their coldest autumn day (lowest maximum temperature) on record
- Mean minimum temperatures were close to or slightly cooler than usual across Greater Brisbane
- It was a warm start to the season in March, and Brisbane had its warmest autumn night (highest daily minimum temperature) since 2001
- Minimum temperatures were above average for the first ten days of the month, before a spell of cooler than average nights from the 12th to the 17th
- It was a cool end to the season, with cooler than usual mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures in Greater Brisbane during May
Brisbane
- Autumn rainfall for Brisbane is estimated at 96.4 mm, and 40 % of the long-term average of 243.3 mm. Due to an equipment outage at the Brisbane site means the true rainfall total for March is not known, but estimated at around 79 mm, and an April total Brisbane of 5.2 mm, along with a May total for Brisbane was 12.2 mm
- The mean daily maximum temperature for Brisbane was 27.1 °C, which is 0.1 °C above the long-term average of 27.0 °C
- The warmest day was 33.6 °C on 17 April, and the coolest day was on 23 May when the temperature reached 15.1 °C
- The mean daily minimum temperature for Brisbane was 17.3 °C, which is 0.2 °C above the long-term average of 17.1 °C
- The coldest morning was 10.2 °C on 26 May, and the warmest morning was on 6 March when the minimum temperature was 25.6 °C
Further information
- Media
- media@bom.gov.au (03) 9669 4057
Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Extremes in autumn 2020 | |
|---|---|
| Hottest day | 35.8 °C at Greenbank (Defence) on 2 March |
| Warmest days on average | 27.8 °C at University of Queensland Gatton |
| Coolest days on average | 24.7 °C at Cape Moreton Lighthouse |
| Coldest day | 13.5 °C at Cape Moreton Lighthouse on 23 May |
| Coldest night | 0.6 °C at Beaudesert Drumley Street on 24 May |
| Coolest nights on average | 12.0 °C at Canungra (Defence) |
| Warmest nights on average | 19.4 °C at Cape Moreton Lighthouse |
| Warmest night | 25.8 °C at Point Lookout on 6 March |
| Warmest on average overall | 22.2 °C at Brisbane |
| Coolest on average overall | 19.1 °C at Canungra (Defence) |
| Wettest overall | 345.0 mm at Point Lookout |
| Wettest day | 89.6 mm at Fort Lytton on 10 March |
| Strongest wind gust | 109 km/h at Cape Moreton Lighthouse on 15 March |
Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Record lowest autumn daily maximum temperature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for autumn |
|||
| Cape Moreton Lighthouse | 13.5 | on 23 May | 15.0 | on 12 May 1978 | 111 | 24.1 |
| Archerfield Airport | 15.2 | on 23 May | 16.4 | on 26 May 1990 | 47 | 26.5 |
| Logan City Water Treatment Plant | 15.4 | on 23 May | 16.8 | on 22 May 2013 | 28 | 26.3 |
| Brisbane Aero | 15.8 | on 23 May | 17.6 | on 31 May 2000 | 26 | 25.9 |
| Point Lookout | 14.5 | on 23 May | 15.9 | on 28 May 2000 | 24 | 26.4 |
| Beerburrum Forest Station | 15.5 | on 23 May | 16.8 | on 29 May 2008 | 22 | 26.4 |
| Brisbane | 15.1 | on 23 May | 18.0 | on 30 Apr 2015 | 21 | 27.0 |
| Record highest autumn daily minimum temperature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for autumn |
|||
| Point Lookout | 25.8 | on 6 Mar | 25.7 | on 3 Mar 2011 | 24 | 19.4 |
| Brisbane | 25.6 | on 6 Mar | 25.0 | on 26 Mar 2001 | 21 | 17.1 |
Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Summary statistics for autumn 2020 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum temperatures (°C) |
Minimum temperatures (°C) |
Rainfall (millimetres) |
||||||||||
| Mean for autumn 2020 |
Diff from average |
Highest for autumn 2020 |
Mean for autumn 2020 |
Diff from average |
Lowest for autumn 2020 |
Total for autumn 2020 |
Average for autumn |
Rank of autumn 2020 |
Fraction of autumn average |
|||
| Amberley AMO | 27.7 | +0.8 | 34.9 | 17 Apr | 13.4 | -0.5 | 3.0 | 2 May | 91.2 | 191.0 | low | 48% |
| Archerfield Airport | 27.4 | +0.9 | 34.6 | 2 Mar | 15.1 | -0.1 | 7.5 | 4 May | 93.0 | 275.3 | v low | 34% |
| Beaudesert Drumley Street | 27.4 | +0.6 | 33.9 | 17 Apr | 13.7 | -0.1 | 0.6 | 24 May | 66.8 | 212.0 | v low | 32% |
| Beerburrum Forest Station | 26.3 | -0.1 | 33.0 | 2 Mar | 15.4 | -0.3 | 8.2 | 12 May | 223.0 | 407.0 | low | 55% |
| Brisbane | 27.1 | +0.1 | 33.6 | 17 Apr | 17.3 | +0.2 | 10.2 | 26 May | ||||
| Brisbane Aero | 26.3 | +0.4 | 31.6 | 11 Apr | 16.5 | +0.1 | 8.6 | 25 May | 157.2 | 273.5 | low | 57% |
| Canungra (Defence) | 26.2 | 34.0 | 2 Mar | 12.0 | 0.9 | 24 May | 81.0 | |||||
| Cape Moreton Lighthouse | 24.7 | +0.6 | 30.0 | 3 Mar | 19.4 | +0.4 | 10.8 | 24 May | 253.2 | 484.3 | low | 52% |
| Greenbank (Defence) | 27.5 | 35.8 | 2 Mar | 13.5 | 3.3 | 24 May | 91.2 | |||||
| Logan City Water Treatment Plant | 26.8 | +0.5 | 33.8 | 17 Apr | 16.1 | +0.1 | 6.8 | 24 May | 175.0 | 308.5 | low | 57% |
| Redcliffe | 26.0 | +0.2 | 31.7 | 11 Apr | 17.6 | -0.1 | 10.3 | 24 May | 190.2 | 290.4 | low | 65% |
| Redland (Alexandra Hills) | 26.0 | 31.2 | 17 Apr | 16.4 | 8.7 | 24 May | 139.6 | |||||
| University of Queensland Gatton | 27.8 | +1.0 | 35.2 | 2 Mar | 13.6 | -0.1 | 5.0 | 2 May | 59.8 | 171.9 | low | 35% |
Extremes Maps Records Summaries Important notes the top
Notes
The Seasonal climate summary, generally published on the first working day of each month, lists the main features of the weather in Greater Brisbane using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. More extensive discussion of significant weather events, along with later information and data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review.
This summary includes data from observing sites in or near the Greater Brisbane “Greater Capital City Statistical Area” (GCCSA). The Australian Bureau of Statistics designed the GCCSAs to “include the population within the urban area of the city, as well as people who regularly socialise, shop or work within the city, and live in small towns and rural areas surrounding the city. It is important to note that GCCSAs do not define the built up edge of the city. They provide a stable definition for these cities and are designed for the output of a range of social and economic survey data.”
This statement has been prepared based on information available at 10 am on Monday 1 June 2020. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.
In some situations, some or all of the rainfall is in the form of hail or snow. In these cases the totals given are for the water equivalent: the depth of liquid water that results from melting any frozen precipitation. There can be significant 'undercatch' of snow in strong winds, meaning the true precipitation can be higher than that reported.
Averages for individual sites 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.
Where temperature area averages are mentioned, they are derived from the ACORN-SAT dataset.
Further information
- Media
- media@bom.gov.au (03) 9669 4057
