Annual Weather Review
Armidale NSW - 2008

© Compiled and written by Peter Burr, using data recorded at the Bureau of Meteorology weather station at East Armidale. No part of this review may be reproduced for commercial purposes without prior permission from the author.


2008 was a cloudy year of cooler than normal temperatures and reasonably good rainfall. Fine sunny conditions prevailed on 154 days which was well below the long term average (LTA).

RAINFALL:  After a wet start to the year the autumn and winter months were drier than normal, but were followed by a wet spring and close to average rain in December. The wettest months were February with 173.8 mm and November with 124.2 mm. The driest month was March recording only 4.8 mm which was the lowest for that month for 43 years. The most noteworthy rain event of the year was on February 12th when 50 mm of rain fell throughout the day causing major flooding in Dumaresq Creek. The total for the year of 766.8 mm was 20 mm lower than the annual average.   

TEMPERATURES:  The year started off with an unusually cool summer, autumn’s temperatures were closer to normal, and June was unusually mild. The coldest winter weather started in early July and lasted almost eight weeks until the last week of August. As spring arrived temperatures became warmer than normal during September and October, but cooled down a little in November. December’s temperatures were close to normal. Overnight temperatures were notably cooler than normal in March, May and August, but were close to normal in all other months. The hottest day of the year was January 13th at 29.5 degrees. It was highly unusual that the temperature did not reach 30 degrees during the year. The lowest overnight temperature was -9.0 degrees on July 12th. The coldest day was July 9th with a maximum of just 5.0 degrees along with light snow falls.

 
WINDS:  Winds were light in March, May and October, and light to moderate in all other months. The year totaled 12 windy days* (annual average 19 days).
Winds at 3pm were westerly on 116 days, easterly on 90 days, south-westerly on 67 days, south-easterly on 31 days,  southerly on 28 days, north-westerly on 16 days, north-easterly on 14 days, and northerly on 4 days.  

EVAPORATION:  Total for the year was 1,012.8 millimetres which was 204 mm less than the LTA. This was the lowest yearly total on record for the 26 years since recordings began. The previous lowest was 1,054.2 mm in 1999. This is a significant departure from the normal. Factors contributing to this low amount include the unusually cool summer months at the beginning of the year, and the higher than normal number of cloudy days throughout the year. Average daily evaporation for the year was 2.8 mm.

FROSTS:  Total frosts for the year was 100 which was just 2 more than the LTA. July and August were the frostiest months recording 21 frosts each. There were 22 light frosts, 45 moderate frosts and 33 severe frosts. The first frost was on March 30th which produced a frost-free period 160 days over the summer of 2007-08, and the last frost was on October 26th.

FOGS:  There were fogs on 22 days which is 10 days less than the annual average. The foggiest month was May with fogs on 5 days. All fogs were in the early mornings with none in the evenings.    

SNOW:  Snow fell on two days. In the evening of May 17th it snowed from 10.30 to 11.10pm settling on the ground to give a patchy white cover, but melted in the early hours of the following morning. On July 9th there were light snow showers throughout the day with the best fall from 2.25 to 2.50pm when large flakes settled on the ground to give a thin white cover which melted soon after. The annual average is 2.3 days of snow.

THUNDERSTORMS:  Thunderstorm activity was very close to normal with storms on 38 days. October was the month with the most storms (9 days), and July was the only month to be completely thunderstorm-free.

HAIL:
 Hail fell on 3 days. Small hailstones on April 21st, October 21st (2 separate falls), and December 29th (2 separate falls). The annual average is 3.3 hail days.

FLOODS:  Major flooding occurred in Dumaresq Creek on February 12th. Minor flooding occurred on February 3rd, October 14th and November 18th.

LTA - Long Term Average     * Windy day - average wind speed higher than 20 kms per hour: 9am to 6pm      

 


          Weather Statistics 2008 - Armidale NSW

 

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

YEAR

 

RAINFALL  mm

58.6

173.8

4.8

54.6

14.4

63.8

29.8

27.8

52.0

76.4

124.2

86.6

766.8

   Long Term Average  mm

102.5

87.9

66.1

45.3

43.2

55.2

48.3

48.1

51.3

68.3

82.3

88.4

786.9

 

RAIN DAYS

13

12

4

11

8

12

11

10

8

12

18

13

132

   Long Term Average  days

10

10

10

8

8

10

9

9

8

9

9

10

110

 

HIGHEST DAILY RAINFALL  mm

13.0

38.2

3.4

20.0

6.4

22.4

9.4

9.2

15.0

20.0

29.6

17.8

38.2

   Day

17

4

22

22

18

4

15

2

6

15

19

14

 

AVERAGE DAILY MAX TEMP  deg C

24.1

22.5

22.9

18.3

16.9

14.8

12.4

12.9

18.4

21.8

21.5

24.9

19.3

   Long Term Average  deg C

26.4

25.5

23.4

20.0

16.3

13.0

12.4

14.1

17.4

20.5

22.5

25.0

19.7

 

AVERAGE DAILY MIN TEMP  deg C

13.1

11.6

7.0

5.4

0.2

2.6

-0.7

-1.9

3.9

6.0

10.1

10.3

5.6

   Long Term Average  deg C

12.6

12.6

10.2

6.3

3.4

0.5

-0.4

-0.1

2.5

5.5

8.6

11.0

6.1

 

AVERAGE GRASS MIN TEMP  deg C

10.9

9.8

3.0

2.1

-3.0

-1.8

-4.6

-6.1

-0.2

2.1

7.0

7.3

2.2

   Long Term Average  deg C

9.4

10.0

7.7

3.1

-1.2

-3.3

-4.2

-4.0

-1.0

2.1

5.9

8.0

2.7

 

HIGHEST MAXIMUM TEMP  deg C

29.5

28.4

27.9

23.8

20.4

20.0

18.5

18.0

26.6

28.1

27.1

28.8

29.5

  Day

13

22

13

2

10

10

14

27

22

31

7

26

 

LOWEST MAXIMUM TEMP  deg C

19.0

16.0

19.0

11.9

8.4

10.6

5.0

6.5

10.5

13.4

13.1

19.3

5.0

   Day

17

12

2

28

18

14

9

11

5,6

23

17

20

 

HIGHEST MINIMUM TEMP  deg C

17.5

16.6

14.1

10.4

8.1

10.8

5.6

6.6

11.1

12.5

16.4

17.1

17.5

   Day

16

3

22

25

30

13

21

30,31

23

5,6

29

6

 

LOWEST MINIMUM TEMP  deg C

8.8

4.1

-1.7

-5.8

-4.6

-6.8

-9.0

-7.4

-4.9

-1.6

3.3

3.0

-9.0

   Day

29

10

30

30

4,5

28

12

20

10,11

23

23

16

 

LOWEST GRASS MIN TEMP  deg C

4.9

1.9

-5.6

-9.1

-8.1

-11.1

-13.8

-11.8

-9.2

-5.6

-1.0

-0.8

-13.8

   Day

30

24

30

30

5

27

12

20

10

23

23

16

 

FROSTS

0

0

2

7

20

12

21

21

10

7

0

0

100

   Long Term Average  days

0

0

1

5

13

17

19

20

15

7

2

0

98

 

FOGS  days

2

0

3

1

5

3

3

1

0

3

1

0

22

   Long Term Average  days

1

1

3

5

5

4

3

2

2

2

1

1

32

 

THUNDERSTORMS  days

2

6

2

2

1

1

0

2

3

9

3

7

38

   Long Term Average  days

7

5

3

1

1

0

0

1

2

4

6

8

37

 

EVAPORATION  (Class A Pan)  mm

113.0

99.8

109.2

71.4

46.6

34.0

39.4

55.8

81.6

113.2

110.0

138.8

1012.8

   Long Term Average  mm

165.8

130.1

117.5

78.1

51.6

37.8

42.8

65.8

97.7

129.8

136.3

163.8

1217.0

 

AVGE. DAILY EVAPORATION  mm

3.6

3.4

3.5

2.4

1.5

1.1

1.3

1.8

2.7

3.7

3.7

4.5

2.8

 

AVERAGE DAILY WIND RUN  km

158.2

130.1

96.6

130.9

84.3

109.8

127.6

138.7

137.5

102.5

147.9

138.8

125.2

   Long Term Average  km

160.2

154.5

150.5

132.8

133.1

153.9

161.0

174.0

181.8

167.4

162.2

162.6

157.8

 

PREVAILING 3PM WIND DIRECTION

E

E

E

E

W

W

W

W

W

W

W

W

 -

 

FINE DAYS ^

9

4

19

15

16

9

11

14

18

17

10

12

154

   Long Term Average  days

16

13

17

17

15

14

16

19

20

19

14

16

195

 

MAXIMUM TEMP > 29.9 deg.   days

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

MAXIMUM TEMP < 10.0 deg.   days

0

0

0

0

1

0

6

5

0

0

0

0

12

MINIMUM TEMP < 5.0 deg.   days

0

0

6

12

28

20

29

29

16

12

2

3

157

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ^  A fine day is a dry sunny day generally free from excessive cloud

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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