Thursday 3 September 2026 - Seasonal Climate Summary for Remote Islands and Antarctica - Product code IDCKGC2RR0
Remote Islands and Antarctica in winter 2026
Jump to a map of the areas covered in this summary
Australia's Indian Ocean islands
- Winter rainfall at Christmas Island Aero was 131.6 mm, this was less than half of the winter average rainfall of 291.4 mm.
- At Christmas Island Aero, both the winter mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were 0.6 °C warmer than average, respectively.
- At Cocos Island Airport, winter rainfall was 459.0 mm compared with the winter average of 548.3 mm.
- It was the equal warmest winter on record for Cocos Island Airport at 27.6 °C.
- The mean maximum temperature at Cocos Island Airport was 1.5 °C above average, it was also the stations warmest winter mean maximum temperature at 29.8 °C and the station also had its hottest winter day (highest daily maximum temperature) on record on 19 June at 32.1 °C.
- The mean minimum temperature at Cocos Island Airport was 1.1 °C above average.
Australia's Pacific Ocean islands
- Winter rainfall at Norfolk Island Aero was 324.6 mm this was below the winter average rainfall of 406.0 mm.
- At Norfolk Island Aero, the mean maximum temperature was 0.7 °C above average and the mean minimum temperature was 0.8 °C above average.
- Lord Howe Island Aero was drier than average this winter, with a rainfall total of 222.4 mm. The average winter rainfall is 432.5 mm.
- At Lord Howe Island Aero, both the mean maximum and minimum temperatures were 0.7 °C above average, respectively
- On 4 June, Lord Howe Island Aero had its warmest winter daily minimum temperature on record at 20.8 °C.
Australia's Antarctic and sub-Antarctic territories
- At the Australian Antarctic stations the strongest wind gust recorded during winter was 183 km/h at Casey on the evening of 21 June.
- The mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures for winter were below average across the Australia Antarctic stations.
- Winter precipitation at Macquarie Island was just above average, the station recorded 268.1 mm of rainfall compared to the average for winter at 235.1 mm.
- At Macquarie Island, the mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures were 0.7 °C and 0.8 °C above average, respectively.
- The strongest wind gust recorded this winter at Macquarie Island was 152 km/h on the evening of the 7 June.
Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Record highest winter temperature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for Winter |
|||
| Cocos Island Airport | 32.1 | on 19 June | 32.0 | on 01 Jun 2025 | 75 | 28.3 |
| Record highest winter mean maximum temperature | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for Winter |
||
| Cocos Island Airport | 29.8 | 29.7 | in 2024 | 73 | 28.3 |
| Record highest winter daily minimum temperature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for Winter |
|||
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 20.8 | on 4 June | 20.6 | on 01 Jun 2024 | 38 | 14.1 |
| Record highest winter mean temperature | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New record (°C) |
Old record |
Years of record |
Average for Winter |
||
| Cocos Island Airport | 27.6 | =27.6 | in 2024 | 73 | 26.2 |
Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top
| Summary statistics for winter 2026 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum temperatures (°C) |
Minimum temperatures (°C) |
Rainfall (millimetres) |
||||||||||
| Mean for Winter 2026 |
Diff from average |
Highest for Winter 2026 |
Mean for Winter 2026 |
Diff from average |
Lowest for Winter 2026 |
Total for Winter 2026 |
Average for Winter |
Rank of Winter 2026 |
Fraction of Winter average |
|||
| Offshore Islands | ||||||||||||
| Lord Howe Island Aero | 20.1 | +0.7 | 23.9 | 3 Jun 2026 | 14.8 | +0.7 | 9.1 | 8 Aug 2026 | 222.4 | 423.5 | v low | 52% |
| Norfolk Island Aero | 19.4 | +0.7 | 22.8 | 4 Jun 2026 | 14.7 | +0.8 | 10.4 | 4 Aug 2026 | 324.6 | 406.0 | low | 80% |
| Christmas Island Aero | 27.1 | +0.6 | 28.9 | 18 Jul 2026 | 23.3 | +0.6 | 20.6 | 28 Jul 2026 | 131.6 | 291.4 | average | 45% |
| Cocos Island Airport | 29.8 | +1.5 | 32.1 | 19 Jun 2026 | 25.3 | +1.1 | 22.0 | 19 Aug 2026 | 459.2 | 548.3 | average | 84% |
| Antarctica and Macquarie Island | ||||||||||||
| Casey | -11.9 | -1.2 | -0.3 | 18 Aug 2026 | -20.0 | -1.3 | -34.4 | 27 Jun 2026 | 75.3 | 71.3 | average | 106% |
| Davis | -15.3 | -1.7 | -3.9 | 15 Jun 2026 | -23.0 | -2.9 | -36.8 | 21 Jul 2026 | 57.1 | 24.3 | high | 235% |
| Macquarie Island | 5.8 | +0.7 | 8.3 | 10 Jun 2026 | 2.4 | +0.8 | -3.7 | 31 Aug 2026 | 268.1 | 235.1 | high | 114% |
| Mawson | -16.1 | -1.6 | -5.2 | 21 Aug 2026 | -23.1 | -2.5 | -31.0 | 9 Jun 2026 | ||||
Extremes Records Summaries Important notes the top
Notes
The Seasonal climate summary, usually published in the first week of the following month, lists the main features of the weather in Remote Islands and Antarctica using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated.
This statement has been prepared based on information available on Thursday 3 September 2026. Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change as new information becomes available.
In some situations, some or all of the rainfall is in the form of hail or snow. In these cases, the totals given are for the water equivalent: the depth of liquid water that results from melting any frozen precipitation. There can be significant 'undercatch' of snow in strong winds, meaning the true precipitation can be higher than that reported.
Averages for individual sites are long-term means based on observations from
all available years of record, excluding the current year. The length of record can
vary widely from site to site. Averages are not shown for sites with fewer than
10 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.
Where temperature area averages are mentioned, they are derived from the ACORN-SAT dataset.
Information about Australian Indigenous seasonal calendars is available at the Indigenous Weather Knowledge website.
Unless otherwise noted, all maps, graphs and diagrams in this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
