Annual Weather Review
Armidale NSW - 2009

© 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.


2009 was a warmer than normal year with good falls of rain. Fine sunny conditions prevailed on 184 days with rain on 123 days.

RAINFALL:  Monthly totals varied throughout the year with a drier than normal winter and spring. Heavy falls returned in December to give a total for the year of 816.4 mm which was 30 mm higher than the long term average (LTA). The wettest months were February with 132.4 mm and December with 149.0 mm. The driest month was August recording just 23.0 mm. The most noteworthy rain event occurred from May 18th to 24th when a low pressure cell developed off the southern Queensland coast and produced heavy flooding rains along the northern NSW coast. Armidale was on the edge of the system receiving 87.4 mm over the seven days. On the afternoon of May 22nd 55 mm of rain fell which caused flooding in Dumaresq Creek. This was the highest daily fall for five years.  
 

TEMPERATURES:   2009 was Armidale’s second warmest year on record after 1998. Temperatures were above average in all months except April, May and July. August was the warmest on record with summer-like conditions on the 23rd (25.5 degrees) and the 24th (27.4 degrees). Unusually hot conditions also prevailed in November, it was the warmest since 1897, and the maximum of 34.4 degrees on the 20th was the highest for November since 1944. Temperatures exceeded 30 degrees throughout the year on 34 days (LTA 13 days). Overnight minimums were notably warmer than normal in April, November and December, and were close to normal in all other months. The hottest day of the year was February 9th at 35.0 degrees, the lowest overnight temperature was -7.0 degrees on June 12th and August 9th, and the coldest day was July 16th with a maximum of 7.4 degrees. 

WINDS:  Winds were light in February and March, and light to moderate in all other months. The year totaled 22 windy days* (annual average 19 days).
Winds at 3pm were westerly on 120 days, easterly on 98 days, south-westerly on 56 days, south-easterly on 35 days,  southerly on 24 days, north-westerly on 17 days, north-easterly on 13 days, and northerly on 2 days. 

EVAPORATION:  Total for the year was 1,191.6 millimetres which was 17 mm less than the LTA. Average daily evaporation for the year was 3.3 mm.

FROSTS:  Total frosts for the year was 92 which was 6 less than the LTA. August was the frostiest month recording 22 frosts. There were 22 light frosts, 46 moderate frosts and 24 severe frosts. The first frost was on April 16th which produced a frost-free period 171 days over the summer of 2008-09, and the last frost was on October 19th.


FOGS:  There were fogs on 29 days which is 3 days less than the annual average. The foggiest month was March with fogs on 8 days. All fogs were in the early mornings with none in the evenings.    
 

SNOW:  Although there were a number of cold outbreaks during the winter months, there were no snowfalls in 2009. The annual average is 2.3 days of snow.

THUNDERSTORMS:  Thunderstorm activity was a little higher than normal with storms on 41 days. December was the month with the most storms (11 days), and April, May and July were thunderstorm-free.

HAIL:
 Hail fell on 2 days. Small hailstones on March 16th and December 15th. The annual average is 3.3 hail days.

FLOODS:  Moderate flooding occurred in Dumaresq Creek on May 22nd and December 28th. Minor or flash flooding occurred on January 1st, February 14th & 25th, April 13th, Oct 26th, and November 23rd.

DUST STORM:  The most unusual event of the year was the thick dust cloud which spread across northern New South Wales on September 23rd. The dust, which was blown in by strong winds from South Australia and western New South Wales, reduced the visibility in Armidale during the morning to as low as 300 metres at 7am. The dust remained during the day and cleared during the evening.


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

 


          Weather Statistics 2009 - Armidale NSW

 

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

YEAR

 

RAINFALL  mm

55.4

132.4

46.2

61.0

87.6

50.2

29.8

23.0

33.4

71.0

77.4

149.0

816.4

   Long Term Average  mm

102.2

88.5

65.7

45.3

43.0

55.3

48.2

48.0

51.3

68.4

82.6

88.4

786.8

 

RAIN DAYS

10

11

11

14

7

15

12

6

4

12

9

12

123

   Long Term Average  days

10

10

10

8

8

10

9

9

8

9

9

10

110

 

HIGHEST DAILY RAINFALL  mm

21.0

38.0

14.4

28.4

55.8

23.8

8.0

16.4

13.8

30.4

37.4

48.2

55.8

   Day

3

15

5

13

23

22

23

30

8

27

24

29

 

AVERAGE DAILY MAX TEMP  deg C

26.9

25.9

23.7

19.5

15.6

13.5

12.2

18.1

19.4

21.0

27.6

27.3

20.9

   Long Term Average  deg C

26.3

25.4

23.4

20.0

16.3

13.1

12.4

14.0

17.5

20.5

22.5

25.0

19.7

 

AVERAGE DAILY MIN TEMP  deg C

12.3

11.9

9.7

8.3

2.7

2.5

-0.1

-0.5

2.3

5.5

10.6

12.7

6.5

   Long Term Average  deg C

12.6

12.6

10.1

6.2

3.3

0.6

-0.4

-0.2

2.5

5.5

8.7

11.0

6.0

 

AVERAGE GRASS MIN TEMP  deg C

8.9

8.9

6.3

5.0

-0.4

-0.3

-3.1

-4.6

-1.9

1.3

7.8

9.7

3.1

   Long Term Average  deg C

9.5

10.0

7.2

3.0

-1.4

-3.2

-4.2

-4.2

-0.9

2.1

6.0

8.0

2.7

 

HIGHEST MAXIMUM TEMP  deg C

32.0

35.0

29.0

23.1

19.5

16.9

17.6

27.4

25.5

28.4

34.5

33.9

35.0

  Day

16

9

4

3

17

23

1

24

17

22

20

8

 

LOWEST MAXIMUM TEMP  deg C

18.4

14.0

18.6

14.2

11.5

8.4

7.4

12.7

11.8

13.9

16.8

19.0

7.4

   Day

9

14

30

27

19

10

16

8

23

26

7

30

 

HIGHEST MINIMUM TEMP  deg C

18.5

16.3

15.5

15.0

9.6

8.6

6.8

14.8

10.1

12.4

16.4

18.4

18.5

   Day

25

10

3

3

23

22

23

25

18

26

22

26

 

LOWEST MINIMUM TEMP  deg C

6.5

6.6

3.2

-0.5

-3.6

-7.0

-6.4

-7.0

-3.6

-3.1

3.1

5.5

-7.0

   Day

1

28

17

30

13

12

20

9

12

17

2

2,3

 

LOWEST GRASS MIN TEMP  deg C

3.2

1.4

-0.6

-3.2

-7.2

-9.6

-9.6

-11.3

-8.3

-8.3

-0.4

1.8

-11.3

   Day

1

8

6

28

15

12

20

9

12

17

2

2

 

FROSTS

0

0

0

4

14

12

16

22

15

9

0

0

92

   Long Term Average  days

0

0

1

5

13

17

19

20

15

7

2

0

98

 

FOGS  days

1

1

8

2

7

4

1

1

3

1

0

0

29

   Long Term Average  days

1

1

3

5

5

4

3

2

2

2

1

1

32

 

THUNDERSTORMS  days

5

5

4

0

0

1

0

2

3

5

5

11

41

   Long Term Average  days

7

5

3

1

1

0

0

1

2

4

6

8

37

 

EVAPORATION  (Class A Pan)  mm

143.2

119.0

113.6

66.0

45.4

34.8

43.6

83.4

96.0

126.2

160.4

160.0

1191.6

   Long Term Average  mm

163.8

128.9

117.2

77.8

51.6

37.6

42.6

65.4

97.1

129.2

135.3

162.8

1209.1

 

AVGE. DAILY EVAPORATION  mm

4.6

4.3

3.7

2.2

1.5

1.2

1.4

2.7

3.2

4.1

5.3

5.2

3.3

 

AVERAGE DAILY WIND RUN  km

121.1

114.3

113.2

129.9

120.2

146.7

160.4

123.8

146.7

144.0

126.9

120.8

130.7

   Long Term Average  km

160.1

153.6

148.5

132.7

131.4

152.3

159.8

172.8

180.3

165.1

161.7

161.8

156.7

 

PREVAILING 3PM WIND DIRECTION

E

E

E

E

E

W

W

W

W

W

E

W

 -

 

FINE DAYS ^

15

13

17

12

14

9

14

22

20

17

20

11

184

   Long Term Average  days

16

13

17

17

15

14

16

19

20

19

14

16

194

 

MAXIMUM TEMP > 29.9 deg.   days

6

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

11

9

34

MAXIMUM TEMP < 10.0 deg.   days

0

0

0

0

0

3

4

0

0

0

0

0

7

MINIMUM TEMP < 5.0 deg.   days

0

0

4

9

23

18

28

24

23

13

3

0

145

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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