April 2014 Review - Sydney

Sydney experienced a slightly warmer than normal April in 2014. The average minimum was the highest for several years while the average maximum was also among the highest in the past few years. Rainfall was below average at the Airport despite more than half of the days of the month recording rain.

The graph below shows the April averages at Sydney Airport during the last 6 years. The long term average is on the left.

April averages at Sydney Airport for the period 2009-2014 plus the long term average

The average minimum of 15.8C (Bureau of Meteorology recorded 16.0C) was the highest average April minimum since 2005. Only 3 days had a maximum below 20C. This helped keep the average maximum up despite there being only 8 days above 25C. For comparison, April 2011 had 14 days above 25C, but still had the same average.

The highest temperature of the month was recorded quite late; it hit 30.1C on April 24. That was only the 4th April day to hit 30C in the past 8 years, and it was the equal second highest in that period. The highest minimum of 19.6C came on the 3rd. The lowest monthly temperature of 12.3C on April 20 was the highest such figure since 2007. Finally, both April 14 and 27 recorded the lowest daily maximum of 19.1C. This was the second highest such figure since 2009.

The number of calendar days with rain for April was quite high. There was a total of 17 days on which rain was recorded. This is compared to the long term average of 11. Despite that, the total monthly rainfall of 72.6mm was far below the average of 106.9mm.

Daily rainfall totals during April 2014

April 6 was responsible for the greatest daily total with 19.6mm. As shown in the graph above over 15mm was recorded on April 15 also. Coastal falls were much greater than elsewhere in Sydney. Observatory Hill received a much greater amount of rain than many other locations. The monthly total there was 121.0mm, just below the average of 127.2mm. Western Sydney received even lower totals than the Airport. Only 49.0mm was recorded at Canterbury and Sydney Olympic Park only got 38.2mm.

The average of the strongest daily gusts for April of 43.3km/h was slightly higher than last April's 40.5km/h. Last month's average was 43.5km/h. The strongest gust of the month came on the 12th, a 72km/h south southwesterly gust, which was coincidentally the same speed as March's strongest. The calmest day was only a couple of days earlier on April 10. A strongest gust of only 20km/h was recorded then making it the lowest of the year so far and also the lowest since July 13 last year.