Friday, December 13, 2013

Temperature records for Christmas and New years Days in Australia


Capital city temperatures have varied considerably across all the capitals on Christmas Days in the past. Here is the list of the capital city hottest and coldest - all in terms of maximum temperatures

Hot Christmas days:
Adelaide: 42.1C in 1888 - 
Perth: 42.8C in 2021
Melbourne: 40.7C in 1907
Brisbane: 39.2C in 1972
Sydney: 38.6C in 1868
Canberra: 37.1C in 1957
Darwin: 36.8C in 1892
Hobart: 36.0C in 2015

Cold Christmas days:
Hobart: 12.6C in 1984 - 
the cold Christmas Day capital city record.
Canberra: 14.5C in 1947 – snow in Alps of Victoria and NSW
Melbourne: 14.5C in 2006 – snow in Alps of Victoria and NSW
Adelaide: 17.4C in 1922
Sydney: 17.6C in 1962
Perth: 19.7 in 1945
Brisbane: 23.8C in 1909
Darwin: 24.6C in 1932

New Years Days show similar variation. Heres the equivalent list for the 1st January:

Hot New Years days:
Adelaide:  43.1C in 1900
Perth:  42.2C in 1997
Melbourne: 41.2C in 2008
Brisbane:  38.4 in 1903
Sydney: 44.2C in 2006 - the hot New Years Day capital city record.
Canberra: 39.9C in 2006 - same day as Sydney
Hobart:  40.6C in 1900 - same day as Adelaide
Darwin: 37.7C in 1896   

Cold New Years days:
Hobart:  14.1C in 1949
the cold New Years Day capital city record.
Canberra:  18.4C in 1956
Melbourne: 15.7 in 1949  
Adelaide:  17.4C in 1970
Sydney:  19.3C in 1871
Perth: 20.9C in 1907 - same year as record hottest Christmas Day in Melbourne
Brisbane: 23.7C in 1895
Darwin:  27.4C in 1997

1997 was an interesting New Years Day - the hottest temperature for Perth and the coolest for Darwin on the same day!

5 comments:

  1. Hi Dick
    I read your posts often in 'old sydney' and 'old nsw' on facebook and realise now that I've known your name for years with regard to the weather so thanks for all that interesting info. I am researching my family tree and my g-g-grandmother was Emily Whitaker, daughter of Charles James Whitaker, coffeehouse keeper of London, England. Any relation do you know?
    cheers
    Kerry Close

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    1. Hi Kerry; Thanks for the kind words - OSA is fascinating because of all the people involved and the exchange of information. I don't know much about my family tree except that my grandfather was an R.B.Whitaker who arrived in Australia (from London) around the 1890's. I'd be very interested to know of any discoveries that you make - so please stay in touch. If you wanted to send me a "friend" request on Facebook we could link up that way.

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  2. Hobart Christmas Day 2006, 5cm of snow fell on Mount Wellington in Hobart, temperature was 1.7c.

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    Replies
    1. Hi,
      2006 was indeed a cold Christmas Day in Hobart
      Max temp 13.5C. Not as cold as 1984 though.

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