Friday, 31 August 2012 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC16L0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in winter 2012: Wet for some, and colder than average.

• Average rainfall generally on the plains, and above average in the hills.
• Despite this it was the wettest winter for Adelaide in 7 years.
• A slightly colder than average winter in 2012.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

Winter rainfall across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area was near to slightly above average for 2012, with several locations in the Adelaide Hills receiving up to 20% more rainfall than normal. The winter 2012 rainfall total at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 260.6 mm, 39 mm above the long-term winter average, making winter 2012 the wettest since 2005. By comparison, during winter 2011, 191 mm was observed. There were 51 rain days this winter, 3 more than the average of 48 rain days per winter season. The highest number of winter rain days that has been observed at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 64 in 1981 when 397 mm of rainfall was observed.

Nearly half of the total winter rainfall at Adelaide (Kent Town) was observed in June, when 126.4mm was recorded for the month, half of which fell on the 21st and 22nd of June. This was followed by below average rainfall through July; despite being the wettest July in 3 years, only 66.2mm was observed at Adelaide (Kent Town) as compared to the long term July average of 75.0mm. August 2012 rainfall was near on average for the month with 68.0mm on 16 rain days.

The wettest day for any location in the Adelaide metro and Hills region through winter was at Belair (State Flora Nursery) where 70.4mm of rainfall was observed in the 24 hours to 9 am on June 21st. This is the highest winter daily rainfall total for this location in 125 years. Blackwood (Wittunga) also observed a record highest winter daily rainfall total on June 21st, with 65.4mm, the highest in 34 years of observations. The wettest location overall was at Bridgewater which received a winter total rainfall of 490.3mm.

Note that 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.

Temperature

Maximum temperatures were generally slightly cooler than average across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area this winter. The mean maximum temperature recorded at Adelaide (Kent Town), for winter 2012 was 15.5 °C, which is 0.5 °C below the average winter maximum and 1.2 °C cooler than average winter maximum temperatures in 2011. But winter mean maximum temperatures of 2012 are the coolest at Kent Town in only 2 years.

The hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area in winter 2012 was 21.3 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on August 22nd. The coldest day was recorded at Mount Lofty on August 23rd with 5.0 °C. Parafield Airport recorded the warmest days on average with 15.7 °C. The coolest days on average were recorded at Mount Lofty with 9.5 °C.

Minimum temperatures were also generally slightly cooler than average across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area. The mean minimum temperature for winter 2012 at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 7.8 °C, which is 0.1 °C below the average winter mean minimum of 7.9 °C. Last winter the mean minimum was 8.6 °C. The coldest night during winter 2012 was recorded at Parafield Airport with -0.9°C on June 9th. Noarlunga recorded the warmest night during winter with 12.6 °C on August 28. The coolest nights on average were 4.8 °C at Mount Lofty. Warmest nights on average were at Noarlunga with 8.6 °C.

Despite the below average minimum temperatures the number of frost nights (nights with a minimum temperature at or below 2 °C) across the Adelaide plains remained near average, though tended above average in the northern suburbs; Parafield Airport had 10 nights and Edinburgh RAAF had 8 nights. Adelaide (Kent Town) had no nights below 2 °C though one or two would typically be expected. Adelaide Airport observed 5 nights which is average for this site. Frost nights through the Hills were below average; Mount Barker had 8 nights as opposed to16 or more on average in slightly warmer than average winter nights at that location.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

* note: there are gaps in the historical record at this site, so it is possible a higher value has gone unreported.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top