Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

 
RSS Subscribe to email

Autumn 2016 warmest autumn on record

01/06/2016

The Bureau of Meteorology's Special Climate Statement reveals that autumn 2016 is the warmest autumn on record for Australia with the mean temperature anomaly exceeding 1.86 °C - the largest anomaly for any season since spring 2014 when it was 1.67 °C.

Published today, the report also states that a prolonged heatwave at the beginning of March saw Australia observing its hottest March day on record at 38.14 °C on 2nd March.

Other Australian temperature records for the season included the:

  • highest on record mean temperature for more than 53 per cent of the country
  • warmest May night of 16.96 °C on 7 May (previous record 16.81 °C)
  • warmest March day on record for three days in a row (1st—37.51 °C, 2nd—38.14 °C, and 3rd—37.59 °C of March)

Maximum temperatures reached during the season were the second highest on record, while minimum temperatures reached were the highest on record.

The Australian region also experienced record sea surface temperatures in March and April.

The full Special Climate Statement is published here: www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/season/aus/summary.shtml.