Monday, 4 September 2023 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Remote Islands and Antarctica - Product code IDCKGC2RR0
Remote Islands and Antarctica in winter 2023
Jump to a map of the areas covered in this summary
Australia's Indian Ocean islands
- Winter was drier than average for Christmas Island Aero, with a seasonal rainfall total of 116.0 mm, compared to the long-term average for winter of 304.4 mm, making it the sites driest winter since 2019.
- At Christmas Island Aero, the mean maximum temperature was 0.1 °C below average, while the mean minimum temperature was 0.2 °C above average.
- At Cocos Island Aero, total winter rainfall was well below average at 185.2 mm, compared to the long-term average for winter of 547.5 mm, making it the site's driest driest winter since 2007.
- At Cocos Island Aero, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were close to average for winter.
Australia's Pacific Ocean islands
- Winter rainfall at Norfolk Island was below average, recording a total of 177.4 mm, compared to the long-term average for winter of 405.3 mm, making it the site's driest winter since 2019.
- At Norfolk Island Aero, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were 0.2 °C below average for winter.
- Winter rainfall at Lord Howe Island Aero was very much below average recording a total of 204.0 mm, which was 49% of average of the winter rainfall, compared to the long-term average for winter of 416.8 mm.
- At Lord Howe Island Aero, the mean maximum temperature was close to average at 0.1 °C, while the mean minimum temperature was 0.3 °C below average.
Australia's Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories
- The strongest wind gust during winter was 172 km/h at Mawson on the night of the 16 June.
- Both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures for winter were below average at Australian Antarctic stations.
- Davis had its lowest winter mean daily maximum temperature since 1993 and its lowest winter mean daily minimum temperature since 1993.
- Winter precipitation at Macquarie Island was higher than average, with the total rainfall for winter of 353.4 mm, compared to the long-term average for winter at 232.9 mm.
- Both mean maximum and minimum temperature were 0.8 °C above average at Macquarie Island.
- The strongest wind gust recorded this winter at Macquarie Island was 113 km/h on 4 July.
Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Lowest winter mean daily maximum temperature for at least 20 years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Observed (°C) |
Most recent lower |
Average for winter |
|||
| Davis | -16.6 | -18.0 | in 1993 | -13.6 | |
| Lowest winter mean daily minimum temperature for at least 20 years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Observed (°C) |
Most recent lower |
Average for winter |
|||
| Davis | -23.4 | -25.0 | in 1993 | -20.0 | |
| Lowest winter mean temperature for at least 20 years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Observed (°C) |
Most recent lower |
Average for winter |
|||
| Davis | -20.0 | -21.5 | in 1993 | -16.8 | |
Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Summary statistics for winter 2023 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum temperatures (°C) |
Minimum temperatures (°C) |
Precipitation (millimetres) |
||||||||||
| Mean for winter 2023 |
Diff from average |
Highest for winter 2023 |
Mean for winter 2023 |
Diff from average |
Lowest for winter 2023 |
Total for winter 2023 |
Average for winter |
Rank of winter 2023 |
Fraction of winter average |
|||
| Offshore Islands | ||||||||||||
| Christmas Island Aero | 26.4 | -0.1 | 28.0 | 13 Jun | 22.9 | +0.2 | 20.3 | 17 Aug | 116.0 | 304.4 | average | 38% |
| Cocos Island Airport | 28.1 | -0.2 | 29.9 | 29 Aug | 24.1 | -0.1 | 21.7 | 15 Aug | 185.2 | 547.5 | v low | 34% |
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 19.4 | +0.1 | 22.1 | 2 Jun | 13.8 | -0.3 | 6.4 | 7 Aug | 204.0 | 416.8 | lowest | 49% |
| Norfolk Island Aero | 18.5 | -0.2 | 21.4 | 2 Jun | 13.7 | -0.2 | 9.7 | 18 Aug | 177.4 | 405.3 | v low | 44% |
| Antarctica and Macquarie Island | ||||||||||||
| Casey | -12.2 | -1.5 | -1.5 | 13 Jun | -20.1 | -1.5 | -36.4 | 28 Jul | 64.1 | 72.4 | average | 89% |
| Davis | -16.6 | -3.0 | -2.4 | 16 Jun | -23.4 | -3.4 | -39.3 | 8 Aug | 20.3 | 24.5 | average | 83% |
| Macquarie Island | 5.8 | +0.8 | 7.8 | 9 Jun | 2.4 | +0.8 | -2.6 | 2 Jul | 353.4 | 232.9 | v high | 152% |
| Mawson | -15.2 | -0.7 | -5.3 | 17 Jun | -21.5 | -0.9 | -32.9 | 31 Jul | ||||
| Note: Precipitation values from Casey and Davis should be used with caution. | ||||||||||||
Records Summaries Important notes the top
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 12 pm on Monday 4 September 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.
Unless otherwise noted, all maps, graphs and diagrams in this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
