3 May 2010

Victoria and Tasmania have recorded their hottest 12 month periods since records began, between May 2009 and April 2010.

Victoria – previous record set between February 2007 and January 2008.

Tasmania – previous record set between May 1988 and April 1989

27 March 2010

Melbourne and Perth were hit with “supercell” storms within 16 days of each other.  Part of what made the storms possible was Australia being covered in a layer of warm, moist air from the tropics.  The air wouldn’t be holding as much moisture if sea level temperatures weren’t higher than normal.

19 March 2010

Hobart recorded 100 days in a row where the temperature reached at least 17 degrees C. 

25 March 2010

Melbourne recorded its 100th day in a row where temperature exceeded 20 degrees C.  The previous record was 78 days.  

26 February 2010

Western Australia had its hottest summer ever in 2010 with temperatures 1.3 degrees C higher than average temperatures.  Perth also had its hottest summer on record.

2009 was Australia’s warmest decade on record. It was the 5th warmest year globally.  A cooler than average global mean temperature has not been recorded since 1985.

17 November 2009

Adelaide experienced its first ever spring heat wave with 8 consecutive days of temperatures 35 degrees C or higher.  Heat waves in Adelaide are defined as 5 consecutive days of temperatures 35 degrees C or higher.

30 October 2009

Darwin experienced its hottest month on record, breaking the previous record set in October 2008. The daily maximum temperature reached 35 degrees C on 13 days, the highest on record for any month.

1 September 2009

Australia had its hottest August on record, and winter was only .01 degrees C from setting a record for the warmest winter ever.  NSW, Victoria and South Australia all had their warmest winters on record.  87 weather stations set new August record high maximum temperatures.

30 June 2009

Melbourne had a record dry first half of 2009 with less than half the long-term average amount of rain falling between January and June.  The last time Melbourne’s rainfall was above average was 1996.

15 June 2009

Record warm and dry conditions were recorded in the West Coast parts of WA in May 2009.  Many of these conditions had persisted for all of 2009 up until May. 

4 February 2009

Heat wave across Southeast Australia broke numerous records.  Tasmania had its highest temperature on record. Victoria and South Australia recorded their highest temperatures since 1939.  Adelaide experienced its highest minimum temperature on record, 33.9 degrees C.  Records were set for heat wave duration, with experiencing 4 consecutive days over 43 degrees C and Melbourne 3 consecutive days over 43 degrees C.

12 January 2009 

Perth had 14 consecutive hot days over New Year and into the start of 2009, with maximum temperatures above 32 degrees C from 29 December 2008 to 11 January 2009.  This type of hot spell was exceeded on only three occasions since 1897 – in 1961-62, 1996 and 1999-2000.

The mean maximum temperature in Perth to the 11th was 35.3 degrees C, the second hottest start to a year on record.

30 September 2008

Melbourne recorded a record dry September, with only 12 mm of rain.  The average amount of rain for Melbourne in September is 57.9 mm.