Thursday, 2 June 2022 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Remote Islands and Antarctica - Product code IDCKGC2RR0

Remote Islands and Antarctica in autumn 2022

Jump to a map of the areas covered in this summary

Australia's Indian Ocean islands

  • Autumn was wetter than average at Christmas Island Aero; the site recorded total of 834.4 mm, which was 16% above its average rainfall for autumn.
  • At Christmas Island Aero, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were within half a degree of the autumn average.
  • Rainfall for the season was very much below average at Cocos Island Airport, which received 21% of its autumn average. However, daily rainfall totals were not recorded on a number of days in all three months of the season due to equipment issues, and autumn rainfall total is likely higher.
  • At Cocos Island Airport, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were 0.7 °C above the autumn average; temperatures were above average at each month of the season.

Australia's Pacific Ocean islands

  • Autumn rainfall was above average at both Lord Howe Island Aero and Norfolk Island Aero, which received 32% and 28% above their autumn averages respectively.
  • At Lord Howe Island Aero, mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were 0.2 °C and 1.0 °C above average respectively.
  • At Norfolk Island Aero, both mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were more than one degree above average.
  • Norfolk Island had its highest autumn mean daily minimum temperature on record.

Australia's Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories

  • Total wind run for March to May was above average at all three Australian Antarctic stations.
  • The strongest wind gust recorded during autumn was 189 km/h at Mawson on 27 May.
  • Mean maximum temperatures were 0.4 °C above average at Casey and Davis, and equal to average at Mawson.
  • The highest daily temperature recorded at all three sites this autumn was 5.6 °C at Casey on 16 March, due to an unusual weather event that brought record high daily maximum temperatures to parts of eastern Antarctica; this was also the highest autumn temperature on record for Casey, exceeding the previous autumn record for this site set in 2008 by 1.1 °C.
  • Casey had its warmest autumn night on record on 18 March.
  • Mean minimum temperatures were 0.9 °C and 0.1 °C above average at Casey and Davis respectively, and 0.3 °C below average at Mawson.
  • At Macquarie Island, autumn rainfall was 28% above average, due to a very wet April and May.
  • Mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were both above average at Macquarie Island.
  • The strongest wind gust recorded this autumn at Macquarie Island was 122 km/h on 24 March.

Further information

Media
(03) 9669 4057

Records Summaries Important notes the top

Record highest autumn temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Average for
autumn
Casey 5.6 on 16 Mar 4.5 on 4 May 2008 34 -7.6


Record highest autumn daily minimum temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Average for
autumn
Casey 0.7 on 18 Mar -1.4 on 5 Mar 2014 34 -14.3


Record highest autumn mean daily minimum temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Average for
autumn
Norfolk Island Aero 19.5 19.3 in 2016 82 17.8


Record highest autumn mean temperature
New record
(°C)		 Old
record		 Years of
record		 Average for
autumn
Norfolk Island Aero 21.7 = 21.7 in 2016 82 20.2


Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for autumn 2022
Maximum temperatures
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
(°C)		 Precipitation
(millimetres)
Mean for
autumn
2022		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
autumn
2022		 Mean for
autumn
2022		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
autumn
2022		 Total for
autumn
2022		 Average
for
autumn		 Rank of
autumn
2022		 Fraction of
autumn
average
Offshore Islands (district 200)
Christmas Island Aero 28.6 +0.4 30.7 14 May 23.6 +0.1 20.6 5 Apr 834.4 722.3 average 116%
Cocos Island Airport 30.4 +0.7 32.3 20 Apr 25.9 +0.7 22.9 22 Mar 138.8 670.3 lowest 21%
Lord Howe Island Aero 23.5 +0.2 27.2 9 Mar 19.2 +1.0 13.1 31 May 548.6 416.7 high 132%
Norfolk Island Aero 23.9 +1.2 26.8 6 Apr 19.5 +1.7 15.6 16 May 456.6 356.8 high 128%
Antarctica and Macquarie Is. (district 300)
Casey -7.2 +0.4 5.6 16 Mar -13.4 +0.9 -28.5 23 Apr 46.7 62.1 average 75%
Davis -9.2 +0.4 0.4 21 Mar -15.2 +0.1 -32.1 5 May
Macquarie Island 7.7 +0.7 10.5 2 Mar 4.6 +0.9 -0.8 21 May 362.5 283.5 v high 128%
Mawson -10.8 0.0 -0.3 21 Mar -17.0 -0.3 -28.8 20 May
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, generally published on the third 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 1 pm on Thursday 2 June 2022. 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
(03) 9669 4057

Climate