Monday, 1 December 2014 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Brisbane - Product code IDCKGC24L0

Brisbane in spring 2014: Hot days; record low rainfall at Amberley despite severe thunderstorms 

Spring rainfall was mixed throughout the metropolitan sites. Amberley and Mt Nebo had record low spring rainfall, while Archerfield and Brisbane city had near-average totals. Severe thunderstorms late in November brought heavy rainfall to isolated sites, two notable events at Archerfield, when 87.8 mm of rain fell in the 24 hours to 9am on the 20th and more than 70 mm fell in the 24 hours to 9am on the 28th. The second of these storms tracked through Brisbane on the afternoon of the 27th, and produced a wind gust of 141 k/hr at Archerfield Airport, flash-flooding and very large hail across Brisbane and surrounding suburbs, with widespread structural damage.

Spring was warmer than average for both maximum and minimum temperatures, with several significant heatwaves affecting the region during the season. Temperatures were very hot in the Brisbane metropolitan area on the 15th and 16th of November, with Amberley setting a new record for the hottest spring day in 74 years when the maximum temperature reached 43.0 °C on the 15th November. Warm overnight temperatures were experienced during the same heatwave, but to a lesser degree.

  • Severe thunderstorms late spring
  • Very hot days in mid-November
  • Record-low spring rainfall at Amberley

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Further information

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Extremes in spring 2014
Hottest day 43.0 °C at Amberley AMO on 15 Nov
Warmest days on average 30.0 °C at Amberley AMO
Coolest days on average 25.7 °C at Redcliffe
Coldest day 20.6 °C at Redcliffe on 5 Sep
Coldest night 1.7 °C at Amberley AMO on 4 Sep
Coolest nights on average 13.0 °C at Amberley AMO
Warmest nights on average 17.5 °C at Redcliffe
Warmest night 24.3 °C at Logan City Water Treatment Plant on 22 Nov
Warmest on average overall 22.1 °C at Brisbane
Coolest on average overall 21.2 °C at Brisbane Aero
Wettest overall 217.8 mm at Archerfield Airport
Driest overall 30.8 mm at Amberley AMO
Wettest day 87.8 mm at Archerfield Airport on 20 Nov
Strongest wind gust 141 km/h at Archerfield Airport on 27 Nov

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Record lowest spring total rainfall
New record
(mm)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Average for
spring
Amberley AMO 30.8 51.5 in 1951 74 187.0
Mt Nebo Post Office 54.4 56.7 in 1968 63 261.7


Record highest spring temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Average for
spring
Amberley AMO 43.0 on 15 Nov 42.1 on 19 Nov 1968 74 27.6
Archerfield Airport 42.1 on 16 Nov 40.5 on 17 Nov 1990 40 26.8
Logan City Water Treatment Plant 40.7 on 16 Nov 38.5 on 30 Nov 1996 23 26.4


Record highest spring daily minimum temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Average for
spring
Brisbane Aero 24.2 on 22 Nov 24.1 on 29 Nov 2008 21 15.5


Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for spring 2014
Maximum temperatures
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
(°C)		 Rainfall
(millimetres)
Mean for
spring
2014		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
spring
2014		 Mean for
spring
2014		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
spring
2014		 Total for
spring
2014		 Average
for
spring		 Rank of
spring
2014		 Fraction of
spring
average
Amberley AMO 30.0 +2.4 43.0 15 Nov 13.0 0.0 1.7 4 Sep 30.8 187.0 lowest 16%
Archerfield Airport 28.3 +1.5 42.1 16 Nov 15.1 +0.9 5.4 5 Sep 217.8 213.4 average 102%
Brisbane 27.5 +0.6 38.9 16 Nov 16.7 +0.5 9.1 5 Sep 175.4 207.8 average 84%
Brisbane Aero 26.0 +0.5 32.2 16 Nov 16.4 +0.9 6.9 4 Sep 116.6 200.1 low 58%
Logan City Water Treatment Plant 27.3 +0.9 40.7 16 Nov     7.6 5 Sep 92.0 212.9 v low 43%
Redcliffe 25.7 +0.2 36.4 16 Nov 17.5 +0.6 9.2 5 Sep 112.8 214.1 low 53%

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Notes

A Seasonal Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in Brisbane using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. Later information, including data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review, usually published in the fourth week of the month.

A Climate Summary is generally published on the first working day of each month.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 10 am on Monday 1 December 2014. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

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.

The ACORN-SAT dataset is used for temperature area averages.

Further information

Media
(03) 9669 4057
Enquiries