Happy Australia Day

Australia Day 2013 was a fairly cool day in Sydney. I mentioned on Thursday that it needed to top 22.9C to be warmer than 1997, but it just fell short with 22.8C. We have to go back even further to find a cooler January 26. It turns out today was actually the coolest Australia Day since 1965, when it only reached 20.2C.

Around 3am this morning the temperature hit a low of 16.6C. If we look at past results for minimums on January 26, we have to go back to 1976 to find a lower figure, when it dropped to 13.6C. Today's minimum was the lowest of the month so far, and will probably remain that way. It was also the lowest temperature since December 7 last year and the lowest January temperature since January 13 2012.

Not surprisingly, both the minimum and maximum were well below the long term average. The graph below shows Australia Day temperatures at Sydney Airport since 2009, as well as the long term average.

Australia Day temperatures at Sydney Airport for the period 2009-2014 plus the long term average

Despite the cooler temperatures, rain did stay away for almost the whole day. Sydney Airport recorded 0.6mm around 4am. This raised the monthly total to 11.2mm, a total which is still the lowest since at least 2004. Observatory Hill recorded a brief shower before 4.30pm, but there weren't any significant falls in the Sydney region. The BoM forecast currently supports the idea of no further falls for the remainder of the month with warm and sunny conditions expected during the coming week.