Monday, 4 December 2023 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Remote Islands and Antarctica - Product code IDCKGC2RR0

Remote Islands and Antarctica in spring 2023

Jump to a map of the areas covered in this summary

Australia's Indian Ocean islands

  • Spring was drier than average for Christmas Island Aero, but there were several days with missing observations in November, so a final rainfall total for spring is unknown.
  • At Christmas Island Aero, the mean maximum temperature was 1.0 °C above average. It is not possible to calculate a mean minimum temperature for Spring due to equipment issues during November.
  • At Cocos Island Airport, total spring rainfall was very much below average at 21.2 mm, compared to the long-term average for spring of 270.9 mm.
  • At Cocos Island Airport, the mean maximum temperature was 0.5 °C above average and the mean minimum temperature was 0.6 °C above average.

Australia's Pacific Ocean islands

  • Spring rainfall at Norfolk Island Aero was below average, but there were several days with missing observations in November, so a final rainfall total for spring is unknown.
  • At Norfolk Island Aero, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were close to average.
  • Spring rainfall totals at Lord Howe Island Aero were below average, but there were several days with missing observations in November, so a final rainfall total for spring is unknown. The nearby station at Lord Howe Island (Milky Way) reported a spring rainfall total of about 70% of average.
  • At Lord Howe Island Aero, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were close to average.

Australia's Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories

  • The strongest wind gust during spring was 211 km/h at Casey on 14 September.
  • The mean maximum temperature for spring was above average at Australian Antarctic stations, while the mean minimum temperature was below average at Australian Antarctic stations.
  • Spring precipitation at Macquarie Island was slightly higher than average, with the site recording 251.6 mm of rainfall, compared to the long-term average for spring at 229.5 mm.
  • Both mean maximum and minimum temperature were close to average at Macquarie Island.
  • The strongest wind gust recorded this spring at Macquarie Island was 124 km/h on 15 October.


Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for spring 2023
Maximum temperatures
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
(°C)		 Precipitation
(millimetres)
Mean for
spring
2023		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
spring
2023		 Mean for
spring
2023		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
spring
2023		 Total for
spring
2023		 Average
for
spring		 Rank of
spring
2023		 Fraction of
spring
average
Offshore Islands
Christmas Island Aero 27.8 +1.0 29.6 10 Nov     21.0 4 Sep 7.4 301.7 v low 2%
Cocos Island Airport 29.2 +0.5 30.6 27 Nov 24.9 +0.6 22.4 9 Sep 21.2 270.9 lowest 8%
Lord Howe Island Aero 21.4 +0.3 25.8 27 Nov 15.8 -0.1 8.0 15 Sep 216.2 324.9 low 67%
Norfolk Island Aero 20.6 +0.2 24.0 16 Nov 15.2 +0.2 11.8 2 Oct 135.0 250.7 v low 54%
Antarctica and Macquarie Island
Casey -6.3 +0.4 1.5 28 Nov -12.8 +0.8 -21.8 23 Oct 38.0 44.5 average 85%
Davis -6.8 +1.1 4.8 27 Nov -12.7 +1.4 -31.2 2 Sep 13.5 11.2 high 121%
Macquarie Island 6.1 +0.2 8.5 21 Nov 2.2 +0.1 -4.7 27 Oct 251.6 229.5 average 110%
Mawson -7.7 +1.1 -0.2 25 Nov -14.3 +0.8 -29.7 3 Sep
Note: Precipitation values from Casey and Davis should be used with caution.

Records Summaries Important notes the top

Map of the areas covered by this summary

Notes

The Seasonal climate summary, usually published in the first week of the following 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.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 7 am on Monday 4 December 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.

Information about Australian Indigenous seasonal calendars is available at the Indigenous Weather Knowledge website.

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