© 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.

2004 was a year of slightly above average rainfall, mostly light winds, and warmer than normal day temperatures. Fine sunny weather prevailed on 197 days.

RAINFALL:  Total rainfall for the year managed to beat the average by 48 mm. The year got off to a wet start with January recording over double its normal amount. Drier conditions then prevailed with below average monthly falls through until October when heavy spring rains arrived. November was below average, but in December substantial above average falls again returned to give a total for the year of 835.2 mm on 94 days. 

TEMPERATURES:  Temperatures were close to normal in most months with the exception of February which experienced unusually hot conditions, May and June which had much colder than normal overnight temperatures, and July which had warmer than normal day temperatures. The highest temperature for the year was 35.0 degrees on January 6th and 7th, and the lowest was -9.3 degrees on June 30th.

WINDS:  Winds were light to moderate in January, August, October and November, and light in all other months. The prevailing directions were easterlies in February, March and April, and westerlies in all other months. The year totalled 5 windy days* (annual average 19 days), and 127 days with light winds** (annual average 143 days). Winds were westerly on 165 days, easterly on 70 days, south-westerly on 45 days, south-easterly on 28 days, north-westerly on 27 days, variable on 18 days, north-easterly on 9 days and southerly on 4 days.

EVAPORATION:  Total for the year was 1278.8 millimetres which was 56 mm higher than the long term average. Average daily evaporation for the year was 3.5 mm, and the highest amount in a single day was 9.2 mm on November 30th.

FROSTS:  Total frosts for the year was 109 which is 12 more than the long term average. There were 25 light frosts, 48 moderate frosts and 35 severe frosts. The first frost was on April 10th which produced a frost-free period of 134 days over the summer of 2003-04. The second last frost was on October 10th, and the last was an unusually late one on December 29th.

FOGS:  There were fogs on 35 days which is 3 days more than the annual average. The month with the most fogs was April with 8 fogs.    

SNOW:  It snowed on 3 days. Light snow fell from 9pm on July 17th through to the early hours of the 18th with a patchy cover on the ground in the morning of the 18th. In the morning of August 5th large flakes of snow fell from 10.20am for 30 minutes, but did not settle on the ground. The annual average is 2.3 days of snow.

THUNDERSTORMS:  Thunderstorm activity was a little higher than normal with December having the most number of storms. There were 64 thunderstorm events during the year (the annual average is 60) - 31 storms of slight intensity, 8 storms of moderate intensity, 5 storms of heavy intensity, and 21 occasions of thunder without precipitation. There were no severe storms.

HAIL:   Hail was surprisingly absent in 2004. Hail was observed on just one day - August 17th which was a fall of mostly soft hail less than 5 mm diameter, but some hailstones were up to 8 mm diameter (the annual average is 3.3 hail days). There were several other minor hailfalls during the year in other parts of the city, but only the one noted above occurred at the weather station.

FLOODS:   Flooding occurred in Dumaresq Creek in the early morning of January 17th, and the afternoons of January 25th and December 10th.

DUST:   In the early hours of August 14th strong winds gusting in excess of 70 kms per hour brought a dust haze into the region from the west of the state reducing visibility to less than 7 kilometres till around 10am.  

* 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

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

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