Friday, 30 November 2012 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Adelaide Metro & Hills - Product code IDCKGC26L0

Adelaide Metro & Hills in spring 2012: Drier and hotter than average.

This statement was prepared on the aftenoon of the 30th November before all data for the period were available. This may affect some of the statistics presented.
  • Driest spring in 4 years, with rainfall about 40% of the spring average.
  • Warmer than average, and the hottest spring since 2009.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

Rainfall across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area was below average for spring 2012, with several locations in the Adelaide Hills struggling to reach 50% of the long term average. At Adelaide (Kent Town) 59.4 mm was recorded throughout spring, 76 mm below average, which resulted in the driest spring since 2008 when only 34.8mm was recorded. By comparison, during spring 2011, 114.6 mm was observed. There were 25 rain days this spring, 7 fewer than the average of 32 rain days per spring season.

Only 21.8 mm was recorded in September, about 30% of the average, 20.0mm in October and 17.6mm in November. The most significant rain event was on the 11th October when 16.4mm was recorded. The wettest location overall in spring 2012 was at Bridgewater with a total of 119.8mm.

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.

Some sites had their lowest total spring rainfall on record.
Some sites had their lowest total spring rainfall for at least 25 years.

Temperature

Maximum temperatures were warmer than average across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area this spring. The mean maximum temperature recorded at Adelaide (Kent Town), for spring 2012 was 23.5 °C, which is 1.5 °C above the average spring maximum temperatures, the hottest spring since 2009 with an average of 24.1°C.

The hottest maximum temperature recorded in the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area in spring 2012 was 38.5 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on 29th November. The coldest day was recorded at Mount Lofty on 11th October with 7.8 °C. Parafield Airport recorded the warmest days on average with 24.0 °C. The coolest days on average were recorded at Mount Lofty with 17.8 °C.

Minimum temperatures were generally near average across the Adelaide metropolitan and hills area, if slightly warmer than average. The mean minimum temperature for spring 2012 at Adelaide (Kent Town) was 11.9 °C, slightly warmer than average. Last spring the mean minimum was 12.7 °C. The coldest night during spring 2012 was recorded at Mount Lofty with just 0.4°C on October 11th and 12th . Both Adelaide (Kent Town) and Noarlunga recorded the warmest nights on average during spring with 11.7 °C. The coolest nights on average were 7.8 °C at Mount Lofty. The warmest night was observed at Edinburgh RAAF with a minimum temperature of 27.1 °C observed on November 5th.

Further information

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Extremes in spring 2012
Hottest day 38.5 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on 29 Nov
Warmest days on average 24.0 °C at Parafield Airport
Coolest days on average 17.8 °C at Mount Lofty
Coldest day 7.8 °C at Mount Lofty on 11 Oct
Coldest night 0.4 °C at Mount Lofty on 11 Oct
0.4 °C at Mount Lofty on 12 Oct
Coolest nights on average 8.0 °C at Mount Lofty
Warmest nights on average 11.9 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Warmest night 27.1 °C at Edinburgh RAAF on 5 Nov
Warmest on average overall 17.7 °C at Adelaide (Kent Town)
Coolest on average overall 12.9 °C at Mount Lofty
Wettest overall 119.8 mm at Bridgewater
Driest overall 36.0 mm at Gawler Council Depot
Highest wind gust 100 km/h at Mount Crawford (Mt Crawford AWS) on 5 Sep

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Record lowest total spring rainfall
Total rainfall
for spring 2012 (mm) 		Previous driest
for spring		 Years of
record		 Average for
spring
Adelaide (Tea Tree Gully Council) 43.9 47.9 in 2006 126 160.8

Lowest total spring rainfall for at least 25 years
Total rainfall
for spring 2012 (mm) 		Most recent spring
at least this dry		 Years since
drier		 Average for
spring
Lobethal 75.7 69.9 in 1914* 97 214.6
Adelaide (Pooraka) 40.4 30.1 in 1938* 73 118.6
Gawler Council Depot 36.0 26.7 in 1896* 65 119.8
Hamley Bridge 46.8 35.8 in 1967* 42 113.6
Mallala 43.0 35.6 in 1982* 26 105.8

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



Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Summary statistics for spring 2012
Maximum temperatures
for spring
(°C)		 Minimum temperatures
for spring
(°C)		 Rainfall
for spring
(millimetres)
Mean for
spring
2012		 Diff
from
average		 Highest for
spring
2012		 Mean for
spring
2012		 Diff
from
average		 Lowest for
spring
2012		 Total for
spring
2012		 Average
for
spring		 Rank of
spring
2012		 Fraction of
spring
average
Adelaide (Kent Town) 23.5 +1.5 38.0 29 Nov 11.9 +0.2 4.9 11 Oct 59.4 135.4 v low 44%
Adelaide Airport 22.5 +1.5 36.8 29 Nov 11.0 +0.2 3.8 25 Sep 45.0 108.3 v low 42%
Edinburgh RAAF 23.9 +1.7 38.5 29 Nov 10.3 0.0 1.9 18 Sep 50.2 111.4 v low 45%
Kuitpo Forest Reserve 19.6   33.5 29 Nov 9.5   2.7 11 Oct 133.8
Mount Barker 20.9 +1.4 37.0 29 Nov 8.5 +1.2 2.2 25 Sep 109.8 191.8 v low 57%
Mount Crawford (Mt Crawford AWS) 19.9   36.5 29 Nov 8.9   1.1 11 Oct 62.6
Mount Lofty 17.8   33.0 29 Nov 8.0   0.4 11 Oct 95.6
Noarlunga 22.1   36.4 29 Nov 11.8   5.4 11 Oct 76.8
Parafield Airport 24.0 +2.1 38.2 29 Nov 10.6 +0.2 1.8 18 Sep 56.6 112.5 v low 50%

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Notes

This statement was prepared before all data for the period were available. This may affect some of the statistics presented.

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 3 pm on Friday 30 November 2012. 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

Media
(03) 9669 4057
Enquiries

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