Just as it has been announced that January 2019 was the hottest January in Australia’s records, a look at the statistics on Taree’s weather for 2018 compared to the 20 years previous tells an interesting story.
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(All data was taken from the Taree Airport station; only the past 21 years’ data is available.)
Related reading: January 2019 was hottest month on record
While 2018 did not break any records for hottest day in the past 20 years (February 2017 holds the record for hottest day at 45.7 degrees), Bureau of Meteorology data shows that maximum monthly average temperatures in 2018 were warmer in eight out of 12 months than monthly averages for maximum temperatures for the previous 20 years.
May recorded the same average (21.5 degrees), while June, September and October’s maximum temperature was under the 20 year monthly average by 0.8 to 1.6 degrees.
Eight months, excluding May and the winter months, recorded a highest daily temperature of over 30 degrees, and six months recorded highest temperatures over 35 degrees.
Average monthly minimum temperatures were warmer across the board, with the least difference of one degree warmer in August, to June being 4.9 degrees warmer than the monthly average over the past 20 years.
Lowest daily temperatures for each month in 2018 were also higher than the lowest recorded in the past 20 years with the biggest difference of 6.8 degrees in October, where the lowest recorded in 2018 was 5.6 and the lowest for the past 20 years -2 degrees in 1997.
It is no surprise that 2018 was a dry year, with only 1043.3 millimetres recorded for the total year.
Records show that 10 months were dryer than usual, with March and October receiving a dumping that took them way over the average over the last 20 years. March 2018 was the wettest month of the year with a monthly total of 346.4 millimetres; the yearly average over the past 20 years for March being 168mm. October was also wetter than average with 189mm, the average for the past 20 years being 80mm for that month.
Related reading: NSW records driest July since 2002
August was the driest month with only 3.4mm of rain received (50mm average). The biggest difference between rain received in one month and the average for the past 20 years for that month was January, receiving 72.7mm less than average.
Related reading: Farmers still in dire need of more rain
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