January 2014 Review - Sydney

January 2014 in Sydney was one of the driest on record. Temperatures were still above the long term average, but they were lower than some of the previous years. It could be said that January was actually quite a good, comfortable month for summer weather. There was plenty of blue sky, especially in the middle and at the end of the month, with only one hot day and only a few cooler days.

The table below shows the January averages at Sydney Airport since 2009.

January averages at Sydney Airport for the period 2009-2014

In the end this year's edition was the second coolest of the previous 6 Januaries in terms of average maximum. The long term averages of 18.8C and 26.5C were still easily eclipsed though.

The warmest day of the month was January 2 when it reached 36.8C. 3 of the past 6 Januaries have had at least 1 day above 40C. The coolest day was January 8 which had a top of only 21.6C. The lowest temperature of the month came on Australia Day, January 26, when it dropped as low as 16.6C, and the highest minimum of the month was 21.8C recorded on the 16th. This figure was actually the lowest of the previous 6 years.

January rainfall was well below average this year. The monthly total of 11.2mm at Sydney Airport was the 4th lowest on record (dating back to 1930) and the lowest since 1985. The long term average up to 2013 was 94.6mm. Rain was recorded on 10 days during the month, but the wettest day, January 22, had a recording of only 3.4mm, and on 7 of those 10 days less than 1mm was recorded.

Because the month was so dry, let's compare the 5 driest Januaries on record at Sydney Airport. The following graph shows the highest daily totals compared to monthly totals for the 5 driest years since 1930.

Highest daily and overall monthly rainfall totals for the 5 driest Januaries at Sydney Airport since 1930

Even though January 2014 wasn't the driest on record, the highest daily total figure of 3.4mm for this year is lower than any other respective figure. It's actually the lowest in all years since 1930. If we look at the number of rain days, it's also quite interesting. As I mentioned above, January 2014 had 10 days on which rain was recorded. This is compared to 3 in 1932, 4 in both 1942 and 1985, and 8 in 2003. Even January 2013 had 10 rain days, but for a far greater monthly total of 147.0mm. This just goes to show that while there was some rain around, heavy and significant falls didn't eventuate.

There weren't too many windy days during the month. The strongest gust, a northeasterly at 72km/h, was recorded on January 5. This was compared to a strongest gust in January last year of 87km/h. January 21 was responsible for the weakest daily gust at only 30km/h.