Annual Weather Review
Armidale NSW - 2003

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

2003 was a year of average rainfall, mostly light winds, and temperatures close to normal. It rained on 111 days with fine sunny weather on 197 days.

RAINFALL:  After three consecutive years of below average rainfall, and while other parts of New South Wales were still drought affected in 2003, Armidale managed to beat the long term average (LTA) by just two millimetres. January was very dry and hot followed by moderate falls in February March and April, after which a dry winter set in with much lighter rain from May through to September. Above average falls arrived again in October, November and December with the total for the year reaching 789.8 millimetres. The winter months were particularly dry with just 118 millimetres recorded for the five months from May to September which was less than half the average of 249 millimetres for that period.

TEMPERATURES:  Temperatures were close to normal from February to August. January and September were unusually warm, while October and November were cooler than normal. December was a little warmer than normal. The highest temperature for the year was 36.3 degrees on January 31st, which was Armidale’s hottest day since December 19th 1990, and the lowest for the year was -10.5 degrees on July 28th. Of note was the minimum of -3.0 degrees on November 3rd which was the lowest temperature ever recorded in the month of November.

WINDS:  Winds were light to moderate in January, February and September, and lighter than normal in all other months. The prevailing directions were easterlies from January to May, and westerlies for the rest of the year. The year totalled 13 windy days* (annual average 20 days), and 130 days with light winds** (annual average 144 days). Winds were westerly on 128 days, easterly on 94 days, south-easterly on 41 days, south-westerly on 37 days, variable on 27 days, north-westerly on 21 days, northerly on 6 days, southerly on 6 days and north-easterly on 5 days.

EVAPORATION:  Total for the year was 1259 millimetres which was 37 mm higher than the long term average. Average daily evaporation for the year was 3.4 mm, and the highest amount in a single day was 10.0 mm on January 19th.

FROSTS:  Total frosts for the year was 100 which is just three more than the LTA. There were 33 light frosts, 41 moderate frosts and 26 severe frosts. The first frost was on April 18th which produced a frost-free period of 131 days over the summer of 2002-03. The last frost was on November 27th.

FOGS:  There were fogs on 30 days which is 2 days less than the annual average. The months with the most fogs were May and June with 6 fogs each.

SNOW:  Although there were a number of cold snaps during the winter months, there were no snowfalls in 2003. The annual average is 2.4 days of snow.

THUNDERSTORMS:  Thunderstorm activity was a little lower than normal with December having the most number of storms. There were 57 thunderstorm events during the year (the annual average is 60) - 20 slight storms, 16 moderate storms, 3 heavy storms, and 18 occasions of thunder without precipitation. There were no severe storms.

HAIL:   There were hailfalls on 4 days (the annual average is 3.3 hail days). Hail fell on March 30 (up to 8 mm diameter), October 2nd (up to 15 mm diameter) and on December 15th (up to 10 mm diameter). Soft hail mixed with rain fell on January 7th.

FLOODS:   Flooding occurred in Dumaresq Creek in the morning of February 22nd, and the afternoons of April 28th, November 8th and December 15th.

DUST:   The severe drought in the far west of New South Wales caused large dust clouds to be blown across the east of the state on two occasions in 2004. In the afternoon of January 31st visibility in Armidale was reduced by dust to less than 15 kilometres, and in the morning of October 29th a dust cloud reduced visibilty to less than 6 kilometres.

* Windy day - average wind speed higher than 20 kms per hour: 9am to 6pm
** Day with light winds - average wind speed less than 8 kms per hour: 9am to 6pm

Weather Statistics 2003 - Armidale NSW


  JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC YEAR
RAINFALL mm 41.8 161.2 69.6 114.6 23.0 37.6 16.8 34.4 6.0 85.4 104.4 95.0 789.8
Long Term Average 102.5 87.3 66.2 45.4 44.2 55.6 49.0 48.3 51.8 68.0 81.4 88.0 787.6
RAIN DAYS 5 14 14 13 10 9 6 7 1 14 9 9 111
Long Term Average 10 10 10 8 8 10 9 9 8 9 9 10 110
HIGHEST DAILY RAINFALL mm 24.0 67.4 23.2 41.4 6.2 11.8 7.4 17.6 6.0 23.2 44.6 47.2 42.6
Day 8 22 7 29 16 21 2 24 13 2 9 5  
AVERAGE DAILY MAX TEMP deg C 28.7 24.8 22.1 18.4 16.0 13.9 12.5 14.6 19.2 18.7 22.3 26.2 19.8
Long Term Average deg C 26.1 25.2 23.4 19.8 16.1 12.9 12.2 13.8 17.2 20.2 22.5 24.9 19.5
AVERAGE DAILY MIN TEMP deg C 11.4 14.0 9.8 7.5 4.2 1.2 -0.8 0.0 1.4 4.2 7.1 12.1 6.0
Long Term Average deg C 12.5 12.5 10.2 6.3 3.9 0.6 -0.2 -0.1 2.5 5.4 8.6 10.9 6.1
AVERAGE GRASS MIN TEMP deg C 7.1 12.0 6.7 4.4 1.2 -1.8 -4.1 -3.5 -3.0 1.0 4.1 9.7 2.8
Long Term Average deg C 9.0 9.6 8.1 3.6 -0.5 -3.6 -3.9 -3.9 -0.6 1.8 6.1 7.6 2.8
HIGHEST MAXIMUM TEMP deg C 36.3 31.0 24.5 22.9 23.5 17.8 19.4 22.3 27.9 25.7 30.0 32.4 36.3
Day 31 15 10 13 19 4 16 13 23 28 20 26  
LOWEST MAXIMUM TEMP deg C 22.0 18.5 17.1 15.0 12.4 8.9 6.5 11.3 11.6 11.9 15.5 13.5 6.5
Day 12 21 12 18 22 22 26 27 1 3 2 6  
HIGHEST MINIMUM TEMP deg C 20.6 16.6 17.7 14.4 11.6 9.7 5.7 10.3 16.5 13.3 18.0 19.5 20.6
Day 19 23 1 14 15 29 1 14 23 29 21 27  
LOWEST MINIMUM TEMP deg C 4.7 10.8 2.9 1.1 -5.0 -5.5 -10.5 -7.2 -5.6 -3.5 -3.0 4.5 -10.5
Day 10 13 3 18 23 16 28 3 2 12 3 8  
LOWEST GRASS MIN TEMP deg C 0.3 8.0 -0.3 -1.8 -8.6 -10.0 -14.3 -10.5 -9.5 -6.9 -6.7 2.3 -14.3
Day 10 13 2,3 21 23 16 28 2 28 12 3 8  
FROSTS 0 0 0 2 12 17 20 19 15 11 4 0 100
Long Term Average days 0 0 1 6 11 17 19 19 15 7 2 0 97
FOGS days 0 1 5 2 6 6 5 2 0 1 1 1 30
Long Term Average 1 1 3 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 32
THUNDERSTORMS days 4 5 6 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 4 9 33
Long Term Average days 7 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 2 3 6 8 36
EVAPORATION mm 211.4 119.4 107.4 69.2 56.0 40.8 43.2 61.0 133.2 113.8 137.6 166.0 1259.0
Long Term Average mm 165.2 129.9 120.7 77.8 50.4 38.0 42.6 65.8 96.9 130.0 138.1 166.3 1221.7
AV. DAILY EVAPORATION mm 6.8 4.3 3.5 2.3 1.8 1.4 1.4 2.0 4.4 3.7 4.6 5.4 3.5
HIGHEST DAILY EVAPORATION mm 10.0 6.8 5.0 3.6 4.0 3.4 2.0 4.2 7.0 7.4 7.6 7.8 10.0
Day 19 12 3,10 1,9 20 29 25,30 13 24,25 29 21 2  
AVERAGE DAILY WIND RUN km 147.8 156.2 105.3 103.9 127.1 110.8 99.1 120.5 191.5 138.9 135.4 138.1 131.2
Long Term Average km 166.6 161.6 158.8 141.0 140.7 162.9 170.7 184.3 189.7 174.8 170.7 171.3 166.1
PREVAILING WIND DIRECTION E E E E E W W W W W W W  
NUMBER OF FINE DAYS ^ 25 8 14 12 18 14 17 16 28 17 14 14 197
MAXIMUM TEMP > 29.9 deg. days 14 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 26
MAXIMUM TEMP < 10.0 deg. days 0 0 0 0 0 2 8 0 0 0 0 0 10
MINIMUM TEMP < 5.0 deg. days 1 0 2 10 15 24 30 24 23 18 9 1 157

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


 


2003 MONTHLY DATA FILES

Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun  Jul  Aug  Sep  Oct  Nov  Dec


                Back to Weather Home