2013 was quite a remarkable year in terms of weather, particularly because of the warm temperatures experienced throughout Australia. This is further supported by temperatures and weather conditions seen in Sydney. In Sydney, January was the warmest month of the year with both the highest average maximum and minimum. June had the lowest average maximum and July the lowest average minimum. The graph below shows the monthly averages for 2013. The dotted lines represent the long term average.
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| Monthly averages at Sydney Airport in 2013 (plus dotted line for long term averages) |
It's clear to see that 2013's monthly figures beat every long term average. Winter minimums, plus those in September, were well above the long term averages, as were the maximums of July through to October. If we look at extremes for the year, the highest temperature was 46.4C on January 4 and the lowest was 5.2C on July 7. The lowest maximum was 13.2C on June 22 and the highest minimum was 23.8C on January 26.
Using Bureau of Meteorology measurements at Sydney Airport, some of the temperature records for 2013 include:
- Sydney Airport saw its hottest temperature ever recorded - 46.4C on January 4 beat 45.2C from January 1 2006.
- July had the highest average maximum on record - 19.6C beat 18.7C which was shared by 1946, 1975 and 2005.
- September had the highest average maximum on record - 25.2C beat 24.0C from 1980.
- September also had the highest average minimum on record - 13.8C beat 13.2C from 2006.
- The yearly average maximum was the highest on record - 24.0C beat 23.4C which was shared by 2005 and 2009.
My own records, which are based on recordings during a calendar day (i.e. midnight to midnight), differ slightly from some of the above values. These include:
- 25.1C as the average maximum for September.
- 13.7C as the average minimum for September.
- 24.1C as the yearly average maximum for 2013.
- 23.1C as the yearly average maximum for 2009.
Despite 2013 being the warmest on record, rainfall was still above the long term average. A total of 1246.0mm was recorded. This is compared to the long term average of 1084.8mm. 2012's measurement was 973.4mm. 2013's figure was 5.1mm short of 2011's mark, but prior to that you have to go back to 1999 to find a wetter year.
June was the wettest month with 305.6mm recorded. Only 15.6mm fell in August, making it the driest. The wettest day was January 28/29 with 104.6mm recorded in the 24hrs to 9am on the 29th. There was a total of 246 days, 67.4% of the year, without rain. Of the 119 days with rain, more than half, 65, had recordings at 5.0mm or less and only 7 days saw falls at or above 50.0mm.
The longest spell without rain was a 5 week period between August 9 and September 14. A 10 day period between June 22 and July 1 saw some level of precipitation every day, making it the longest rainy period of the year.
As usual in Sydney, there were a few windy days during 2013. The strongest gust of the year was 94km/h. This was recorded more than once. A westerly gust on August 12 was the first occurrence. A southerly on October 29 and another westerly on December 5 were the other two. I recall the October and December gusts originally being recorded at 95km/h on the respective days, as can be found in my previous blog posts, but it appears that BoM have updated them to 94km/h. The calmest day was July 13 with a strongest gust of only 19km/h.
It was an eventful year that broke several records. The third quarter of the year was the most unusual. A warm and mostly dry July, August and September made way for bushfires which raged around Sydney already in October. Several days soared above 30C in early spring and, in the end, it was the warmest year on record. You have to wonder what will come next, so let's see what 2014 will produce.
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