© 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.

2005 was a much warmer than normal year with slightly below average rainfall, high thunderstorm activity and mostly light winds. Fine sunny weather prevailed on 209 days.

RAINFALL:  Rainfall was close to average at the beginning of the year, but was followed by a dry autumn. June recorded well above average rain, but July and August were very dry. Good moderate to heavy falls returned in the spring months leading into average December rainfall. The total for the year of 764.4 mm on 107 days was just 23 mm below the long term average (LTA). April with just 2.4 mm was the third driest April on record (from 141 years of records).

TEMPERATURES:  Although 2005 was Australia’s hottest year on record, Armidale didn’t quite follow the national trend. Armidale’s average 2005 temperature (the average of the maximum and minimum temperatures) was second highest after 1998. The 2005 average was 13.47 degrees, 1998 was 13.75 degrees. These figures are derived from 25 years of records at the present weather station site. When comparing with longer term records from the former CBD sites and adjusting for site difference, it appears that 2005 was the sixth highest on record since commencement of reliable records in 1891, however these figures should be treated with caution.
Daytime temperatures throughout the year were higher than normal in all months with the greatest increases on LTA in February, April, July, October and December. April was the equal warmest on record with 1986. Overnight temperatures were close to normal except in May and August which were much cooler than normal.
The highest temperature for the year was 33.7 degrees on January 14th, and the lowest was -8.4 degrees on August 13th.

WINDS:  Winds were light in the three autumn months, and light to moderate in all other months. The prevailing directions were easterlies in January, March and April, and westerlies in all other months. The year totaled 7 windy days* (annual average 19 days).  Winds were westerly on 90 days, south-westerly on 89 days, easterly on 78 days, south-easterly on 37 days, northwesterly on 31 days, southerly on 17 days, north-easterly on 13 days, and variable in direction on 2 days.

EVAPORATION:  Total for the year was 1186.6 millimetres which was 40 mm lower than the long term average. Average daily evaporation for the year was 3.3 mm.

FROSTS:  Total frosts for the year was 91 which is 7 less than the long term average. There were 24 light frosts, 39 moderate frosts and 28 severe frosts. The first frost was on March 27th which produced a rather short frost-free period of just 87 days over the summer of 2003-04 due to a late frost at the end of December 2004. The last frost was on October 11th.

FOGS:  There were fogs on 27 days which is 5 days less than the annual average. The month with the most fogs was June with 9 fogs. There were 26 early morning fogs and 2 evening fogs.    

SNOW:  It snowed on just one day. On June 23rd there were light snow showers throughout the day, however very little settled on the ground. The annual average is 2.3 days of snow.

THUNDERSTORMS:  Thunderstorm activity was a much higher than normal with November having the most number of storms. There were thunderstorms on 44 days of the year which is 8 days more than the LTA. Many of the spring storms produced heavy falls of rain such as the storms on November 27th which deposited 33.2 mm in the early hours, and November 30th with 34.0 mm during the day.

HAIL:   Hail fell on 5 days - January 20th (5 mm diameter), January 22nd (5 mm diameter), October 27th when cen-tral and north parts of town recorded hailstones up to 25 mm diameter, and November 27th and 30th (5 mm diameter). The annual average is 3.3 hail days.

FLOODS:  Flooding occurred in Dumaresq Creek on February 25th, September 4th, November 5th, 8th, 27th & 30th.

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

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

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