Tuesday, 1 March 2011 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC23R0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in summer 2010-11: A very wet summer

  • 6 locations had their wettest summer on record.
  • Close to 10 locations had their wettest summer daily rainfall on record on the 8th of December 2010.
  • Maximum temperatures close to average.
  • Minimum temperatures close to 1 degree above average.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

Rainfall totals were well above average across the Adelaide metro and hills area, with some areas receiving 2 to 3 times their summer average. 6 locations had their wettest summers on record, see summer rainfall records. 10 locations had their wettest summer day on record, see summer daily rainfall records.

Adelaide (Kent Town), recorded a summer total of 147.6mm which is the wettest summer rainfall total on record at the Kent Town site in Adelaide. The previous wettest summer at Kent Town was that of 1992/1993 where 130.4 mm was recorded. The highest summer rainfall total recorded at the West Terrace site in Adelaide was 172.8mm in the summer of 1925. Last year the summer rainfall total at Kent Town was 33.0 mm. The long-term average is 59.7 mm.

The wettest location in the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area was 284.2mm at Williamstown.

The Adelaide official climate rainfall record is taken from the manually observed 203mm rain gauge at the Kent Town site of the Adelaide. These figures may differ from totals on some Bureau web pages as these may be from automatic tipping bucket rain gauge readings.

Some sites had their highest total summer rainfall on record.
Some sites had their highest total summer rainfall for at least 25 years.
Some sites had their highest summer daily rainfall on record.

Temperature

Maximum temperatures were generally close to average, but on the warm side across the metropolitan and hills area this summer. The mean maximum temperature recorded at Adelaide (Kent Town), for summer 2010/2011 was 28.8°C, which is 0.3°C above the average summer mean maximum temperature of 28.5°C. The highest mean maximum temperature on record for summer in Adelaide (Kent Town) is 31.2°C in 2000. The mean maximum temperature for summer last year was 30.4°C.

The hottest day during summer was recorded at Edinburgh RAAF with 43.0°C on the 31st of January 2011. Mount Lofty, in the Adelaide hills, recorded the coolest day during summer with 11.3°C on the 10th of December 2010.

Parafield Airport recorded the warmest days on average with 29.5°C, with the coolest days on average of 26.6°C at Mount Barker.

Average minimum temperatures were close to 1°C above normal across the Adelaide metro and hills area. The mean minimum temperature for summer 2010/2011 at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 17.7°C, which is 1.1°C above the summer mean minimum temperature of 16.6°C. Last summer the mean minimum temperature was 17.7°C.

The coldest night during summer was recorded at Mount Barker with 5.1°C on the 7th of February 2011. Noarlunga recorded the warmest night during summer with 29.0°C on the 1st of February 2011.

The coolest nights on average were at Mount Barker with 12.7°C, whilst the warmest nights on average were at Adelaide (Kent Town) with 17.7°C.

Other phenomena

Some other things happened too, and they are mentioned here.

Further information

South Australian Regional Office
South Australian Climate Services Centre
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (08) 8366 2600
Email climate.sa@bom.gov.au
Extremes in summer 2010-11
Hottest day 43.0 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on 31 Jan 2011
Warmest days on average 29.5 °C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average 26.6 °C at Mount Barker
Coldest day 11.3 °C at Mount Lofty on 10 Dec 2010
Coldest night 5.1 °C at Mount Barker on 7 Feb 2011
Coolest nights on average 12.7 °C at Mount Barker
Warmest nights on average 17.7 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night 29.0 °C at Noarlunga on 1 Feb 2011
Warmest on average overall 23.2 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Coolest on average overall 19.7 °C at Mount Barker
Wettest overall284.2 mm at Williamstown (South Para Reservoir)
Highest wind gust 80 km/h at Edinburgh RAAF on 7 Dec 2010
80 km/h at Parafield Airport on 19 Dec 2010

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Record highest summer daily rainfall
Highest daily rainfall
in summer 2010-11 (mm) 		Previous wettest
for summer		 Years of
record
Williamstown 94.6 on 8 Dec 2010 74.7 on 25 Jan 1941 130
Lyndoch 86.4 on 8 Dec 2010 78.5 on 25 Jan 1941 125
Gawler Council Depot 72.8 on 8 Dec 2010 49.8 on 5 Feb 1890 92
Kersbrook (Mabenjo) 126.0 on 8 Dec 2010 81.0 on 9 Feb 1969 60
Williamstown (South Para Reservoir) 106.6 on 8 Dec 2010 83.3 on 9 Feb 1969 44
Adelaide (Kent Town) 66.2 on 8 Dec 2010 37.4 on 14 Dec 1993 35
Kensington Upper (Burnside) 67.2 on 8 Dec 2010 64.5 on 14 Feb 1913 35
Adelaide (Hope Valley Reservoir) 49.2 on 8 Dec 2010 47.2 on 14 Dec 1993 33
Blackwood (Wittunga) 54.0 on 8 Dec 2010 44.8 on 20 Feb 2000 33


Record highest total summer rainfall
Total rainfall
for summer 2010-11 (mm) 		Previous wettest
for summer		 Years of
record		 Average for
summer
Williamstown 232.4 184.3 in 1945 130 74.0
Lyndoch 215.8 171.0 in 1923 123 64.1
Williamstown (South Para Reservoir) 284.2 173.0 in 1992 43 81.2
Edinburgh RAAF 203.6 182.2 in 1973 39 62.1
Adelaide (Kent Town) 147.6 130.4 in 1992 34 59.7
Kensington Upper (Burnside) 164.6 133.6 in 1912 32 66.4

Highest total summer rainfall for at least 25 years
Total rainfall
for summer 2010-11 (mm) 		Most recent summer
at least this wet		 Years since
wetter		 Average for
summer
Smithfield 187.4 196.0 in 1940 70 63.7
Adelaide (Glen Osmond) 152.2 152.3 in 1945 65 71.7
Bridgewater 256.0 293.8 in 1945 60 102.1
Gawler Council Depot 159.6 178.3 in 1903 56 57.0
Gumeracha 217.8 226.2 in 1945 56 83.0
Hahndorf 224.8 232.0 in 1968 41 89.4
Echunga Golf Course 196.6 212.1 in 1968 40 87.0
Bolivar Treatment Works 145.2 161.6 in 1973 36 59.8
Adelaide (Salisbury Bowling Club) 157.4 182.7 in 1973 35 60.6
Parafield Airport 133.4 176.0 in 1973 35 64.1
Woodside 210.4 223.3 in 1968 26 84.0


Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for summer 2010-11
Maximum temperatures
for summer
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for summer
(°C)		 Rainfall
for summer
(millimetres)
Mean for
summer
2010-11		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
summer
2010-11		 Mean for
summer
2010-11		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
summer
2010-11		 Total for
summer
2010-11		 Average
for
summer		 Rank of
summer
2010-11		 Fraction of
summer
average
Adelaide (Kent Town) 28.8 +0.3 42.9 31 Jan 2011 17.7 +1.1 11.3 22 Dec 2010 147.6 59.7 highest 247%
Adelaide Airport 27.5 +0.2 41.9 31 Jan 2011 16.8 +1.3 9.9 22 Dec 2010 91.2 60.1 high 152%
Edinburgh RAAF 29.0 -0.2 43.0 31 Jan 2011 16.9 +1.0 9.5 6 Feb 2011 203.6 62.1 highest 328%
Mount Barker 26.6 +0.3 40.0 30 Jan 2011 12.7 +1.4 5.1 7 Feb 2011 202.8 86.2 v high 235%
Noarlunga 27.0   41.1 31 Jan 2011 16.6   10.3 6 Feb 2011  
Parafield Airport 29.5 +0.7 42.8 31 Jan 2011 16.7 +0.9 8.9 6 Feb 2011 133.4 64.1 v high 208%

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Notes

A Seasonal Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in Adelaide Metro & Hills 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.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at 11 am on Tuesday 1 March 2011. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.

Averages 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 20 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.

Further information

South Australian Regional Office
South Australian Climate Services Centre
Bureau of Meteorology
Phone (08) 8366 2600
Email climate.sa@bom.gov.au