Monday, 6 January 2014 - Monthly Climate Summary for Sydney - Product code IDCKGC15L0

Sydney in December 2013: A sunny end to the year

• Driest, warmest and sunniest December since 2005
• Cool, wet Christmas

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Rainfall

Sydney Observatory Hill recorded just 31.0 mm of rain during December, well below the historical average of 77.6 mm and the driest December since 2005. The rain fell over seven rain days (average 12 days), with only one day recording more than 5 mm. Most of the rain was recorded over Christmas, with 21 mm to 9 am on the 26th at Observatory Hill and up to 34.4 mm at Springwood. Isolated showers also caused locally heavy rain in southern Sydney on the 15th and 16th, reaching 46.4 mm at Randwick.

Temperature

The mean maximum temperature at Sydney Observatory Hill during December was 26.4 °C, 1.2 °C above the historical average and the warmest December since 2005, with well above average temperatures across the city. There were three days that reached at least 30 °C, which is average for December, reaching 36 °C on the 23rd, while temperatures exceeded 40 °C at Penrith on the 20th and 22nd. No days dropped below 20 °C, with the coldest day reaching 21.5 °C on the 25th.

The mean minimum temperature at Sydney Observatory Hill during December was 18.6 °C, 1.1 °C above the historical average. Eight nights exceeded 20 °C during the month (average 4 nights), while eighteen consecutive nights exceeded 18 °C between the 9th and 26th, the fifth such spell on record for December and the first since 2000. The mean temperature for December was 22.5 °C, 1.2 °C above the historical average.

Other phenomena

The prevailing wind direction during December was northeasterly, with 65% of 3 pm winds between NNE and ENE, while 23% of winds were between S and SE. There were eight strong wind days during the month, with gusts reaching 94 km/h at the airport and 106 km/h in western Sydney during a cool change on the 5th, as well as 89 km/h at the airport and 98 km/h at Port Botany on the 29th.

There was an average of 9.4 hours of bright sunshine during the month, well above the historical average of 7.9 hours and the sunniest December since 2005. There was only one thunderstorm reported at the airport during December, which is below the historical average of 3 storms.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top

Most values are the precipitation in the 24 hours to 9 am on the day indicated. Days marked with »» are part of a longer accumulation, which is marked like this on the final day. Values over 100 mm have been rounded to the nearest whole millimetre. Days marked with - have a rainfall report of zero; days left blank have no rainfall report (which often indicates no rain fell).
This table is very wide; you may have to scroll sideways to see all the days, and you may need to set the paper to 'landscape' to print.

Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top