The maps displayed on this page highlight any areas of Australia that have experienced extremely cold, hot or wet conditions on the day that you select. The maps show the extreme rainfall or temperature event in terms of the average amount of time in years that one would expect such an event to occur again, based on the past climate record and assuming no change in the future climate. Read more
Note: The average recurrence intervals are calculated by comparing the rainfall and temperature observations on the date you select with all the rainfall and temperature data for that particular month, not the whole climate record.
The information on daily rainfall average recurrence intervals should not be used for hydrologic studies (including design of structures like culverts, bridges etc.), assessing the rarity of rainfall events for legal proceedings (insurance claims) and similar such applications. Instead design rainfall estimates should be used in these cases.
How to read the maps
Average recurrence intervals are a way of explaining how rare an event is for a particular month, by comparing how often, on average, the particular event of interest has occurred in the past - more than once a year, more than once a decade and more than once in 30 years. In this case, average recurrence intervals are calculated by comparing the rainfall or temperature observations on the day you select with all the rainfall and temperature data for that month in the climate record. Read more
