Thursday, 2 March 2023 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Remote Islands and Antarctica - Product code IDCKGC2RR0
Remote Islands and Antarctica in summer 2022-23
Jump to a map of the areas covered in this summary
Australia's Indian Ocean islands
- Christmas Island Aero site experienced equipment issues on many days during February. As a result, total summer rainfall and mean maximum and minimum temperatures for summer could not be calculated.
- Because of the equipment issues at Cocos Island Airport, rainfall was not recorded on many days in February; for summer, the site had only 54% of its average rainfall, but the summer total is likely higher.
- Both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures at Cocos Island Airport were 0.2 °C below average.
- Cocos Island had its lowest summer mean daily maximum temperature and lowest summer mean temperature since 2000.
Australia's Pacific Ocean islands
- Lord Howe Island Aero recorded 289.6 mm of rainfall during summer, which was below its summer average.
- Norfolk Island Aero recorded 509.6 mm for the season, 88% above the summer average, due to a very wet January and wetter than average February.
- At Lord Howe Island Aero, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were below average.
- Lord Howe Island Aero had its coldest summer day on record on 2 December, and its lowest summer mean daily minimum temperature since 1999.
- At Norfolk Island Aero, the mean maximum temperature was equal to average, while the mean minimum temperature was warmer than average.
Australia's Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories
- The strongest wind gust recorded for the season was 156 km/h at Mason station on 22 February.
- Both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were below average at Mawson and Davis and above average at Casey.
- Total rainfall for summer at Macquarie Island was equal to its long-term average.
- Both daytime and night-time temperatures at Macquarie Island were 0.8 °C above the average for summer.
- The strongest wind gust for the season at Macquarie Island was 137km/h on 22 February; this was the 3rd strongest February wind gust at this site.
Further information
- Media
- media@bom.gov.au (03) 9669 4057
Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Record lowest summer daily maximum temperature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for summer |
|||
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 19.5 | on 2 Dec 2022 | 19.8 | on 4 Dec 1992 | 35 | 25.1 |
| Lowest summer mean daily maximum temperature for at least 20 years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Observed (°C) |
Most recent lower |
Average for summer |
|||
| Cocos Island Airport | 29.5 | 29.1 | in 2000 | 29.7 | |
| Lowest summer mean daily minimum temperature for at least 20 years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Observed (°C) |
Most recent lower |
Average for summer |
|||
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 19.2 | 19.0 | in 1999 | 20.4 | |
| Cocos Island Airport | 24.7 | =24.7 | in 2000 | 24.9 | |
| Lowest summer mean temperature for at least 20 years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Observed (°C) |
Most recent lower |
Average for summer |
|||
| Cocos Island Airport | 27.1 | 26.9 | in 2000 | 27.3 | |
Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Summary statistics for summer 2022-23 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum temperatures (°C) |
Minimum temperatures (°C) |
Precipitation (millimetres) |
||||||||||
| Mean for summer 2022-23 |
Diff from average |
Highest for summer 2022-23 |
Mean for summer 2022-23 |
Diff from average |
Lowest for summer 2022-23 |
Total for summer 2022-23 |
Average for summer |
Rank of summer 2022-23 |
Fraction of summer average |
|||
| Offshore Islands (district 200) | ||||||||||||
| Cocos Island Airport | 29.5 | -0.2 | 31.7 | 12 Jan 2023 | 24.7 | -0.2 | 21.7 | 8 Jan 2023 | 254.2 | 472.2 | low | 54% |
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 24.4 | -0.7 | 26.8 | 4 Feb 2023 | 19.2 | -1.2 | 13.5 | 10 Dec 2022 | 289.6 | 312.3 | average | 93% |
| Norfolk Island Aero | 24.4 | 0.0 | 27.6 | 5 Feb 2023 | 19.3 | +0.3 | 15.9 | 23 Dec 2022 | 509.6 | 270.9 | v high | 188% |
| Antarctica and Macquarie Island (district 300) | ||||||||||||
| Casey | 1.4 | +0.2 | 5.1 | 12 Jan 2023 | -3.5 | +0.2 | -12.0 | 27 Feb 2023 | 25.6 | 38.2 | average | 67% |
| Davis | 1.4 | -0.4 | 7.1 | 19 Dec 2022 | -3.1 | -0.5 | -9.5 | 11 Feb 2023 | 5.9 | 7.6 | average | 78% |
| Macquarie Island | 9.3 | +0.8 | 11.4 | 1 Feb 2023 | 5.8 | +0.8 | 1.8 | 9 Feb 2023 | 257.0 | 256.1 | average | 100% |
| Mawson | 0.8 | -0.3 | 7.1 | 29 Dec 2022 | -4.8 | -0.3 | -10.0 | 27 Feb 2023 | ||||
| Note: Precipitation values from Casey and Davis should be used with caution. | ||||||||||||
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 Remote Islands and Antarctica 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 statement has been prepared based on information available at 9 am on Thursday 2 March 2023. 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 precipitation 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 precipitation.
The Rank indicates how precipitation this time compares with the climate record for the site,
based on the
decile ranking
(very low precipitation 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 precipitation 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
Unless otherwise noted, all maps, graphs and diagrams in this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
