Australia’s two biggest cities had their hottest and equal hottest winters on record, with three eastern states also breaking temperature records. The Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) spring outlook shows above average daytime and nighttime temperatures are expected to continue for much of the country, with an increased chance of unusually high maximums. Dr Simon Grainger, a senior climatologist at the bureau, said Sydney had its warmest winter on record, with the mean temperature of 15.3C at Observatory Hill breaking the previous record of 15.0C set in 2013.
Average maximum and minimum temperatures at the same site were also the warmest on record. Melbourne equalled its 2005 record for winter mean temperature of 12.2C, while Canberra recorded its warmest winter maximum, with an average maximum temperature of 14.7C. New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania had their warmest winters on record, and all other states and territories except the Northern Territory were in their top 10 warmest winters on record since 1910.
Australia’s mean temperature was 1.45C above the 1961–1990 average for winter, the equal third-highest on record since national observations began in 1910. Grainger said much of the south-east’s experience was driven by “relatively warm nights and a lot fewer cold nights”, with several factors at play. For large parts of this winter we had high pressure systems sitting in the Tasman sea,” he said.
The record-breaking winter data was released as federal resources minister Madeleine King and Northern Territory chief minister Lia Finocchiaro celebrated turning on the tap that will feed the first fracked gas from the Beetaloo Basin into the territory’s power grid. It follows a horror northern hemisphere summer of record-breaking heatwaves, drought and wildfires in Europe and North America, and intense rain and typhoons in Asia. The national average rainfall for winter was 8% above the 1961–1990 average, driven by high rainfall in southern inland Australia.
Grainger said parts of inland NSW, Victoria, South Australia and parts of the Northern Territory had above average rainfall, with parts of far-western NSW near the SA border experiencing their wettest winter on record. SA recorded its sixth wettest winter on record. In contrast, rainfall was below average in parts of the east coast and south-western Australia.
The BoM’s long-range forecast shows below average rainfall is expected to continue through parts of southern and eastern Australia through spring, while above average rainfall is expected in large parts of the west from October. Grainger said a continuation of above average daytime and nighttime temperatures was likely for much of the country “and with that there’s [a] chance of unusually high maximum and minimum temperatures”. He said the BoM’s models showed the El Niño in the Pacific Ocean would continue to strengthen through spring, likely peaking in late spring or in summer.
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