Annual Weather Review
Armidale NSW - 2014

© 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.


2014 was an unusually warm and very dry year.

RAINFALL:  The total of 537.0 millimetres was 251 mm lower than the long term average (LTA), and was the driest year since 1986. Rainfall was well below average in all months except March, August and December. The year started with the driest summer on record followed by some relief in March which recorded well above average rainfall. The following four months were extremely dry with a cloudy wet August offering some hope for some good spring rains. However very dry conditions returned during the three spring months with good soaking rains finally arriving in December. The highest daily fall during the year was 28.6 mm on 6th December. 

TEMPERATURES
:  2014 was the warmest year on record (records commenced in 1891). Day temperatures were warmer than the LTA in in all months except May and September which were close to normal. October and November were particularly warm with temperatures at their highest for over 100 years. The hottest day of the year was 3rd January which recorded 37.1 degrees, the coldest day was 18th July with a maximum of 5.5 degrees, and the coldest overnight temperature was -8.2 degrees on 9th July. Despite the high daytime temperatures, overnight temperatures throughout the year were mostly close to normal.
Notable extremes were:
3rd January - the maximum of 37.1 degrees was the highest for any month since 26th January 1952 (38.4 deg).
26th October - the maximum of 32.4 degrees was the highest on record for October from 106 years of records. The previous highest was 31.5 deg on 19th October 2002.
15th & 23rd November - the maximums of 35.5 degrees and 35.6 degrees respectively were the highest for November since 19th November 1944 (36.4 deg).

WINDS:  Winds were light in March, April and May, and light to moderate in all other months. The year totalled 12 windy days* (annual average 19 days).
Wind direction at 3pm:  west: 127 days, east: 98 days, south-west: 56 days, south-east: 35 days, south: 22 days, north-west: 16 days,  north-east: 10 days, north: 1 day.

EVAPORATION:
  Total pan evaporation for the year was 1,207.2 millimetres which was 17 mm higher than the LTA. Average daily evaporation for the year was 3.3 mm.

FROSTS:
  Total frosts was 98 which was one less than the LTA. July was the frostiest month recording 23 frosts. There were 43 light frosts, 36 moderate frosts and 19 severe frosts**. The first frost was on 17th April which produced a frost-free period of 130 days over the summer of 2013-14. The last frost was on 17th October.

FOGS:  There were fogs on 26 days which is six less than the annual average. The foggiest month was June with fogs on 7 days. All fogs were in the early mornings.  

SNOW:  Snow fell on one day - 18th July with snow showers in the early morning between 7 and 9am. Snow did not settle on the ground in the middle of Armidale, but there was a settling fall at the University of New England on the north-west edge of the city, and also in south Armidale. This was the first settling snowfall since July 2008. The annual average is 2.2 days of snow.

 

THUNDERSTORMS:  Thunderstorm activity was highest in November and December. In December there were storms on 15 days which is unusually high.

HAIL:  Hail fell on 3 days - 16th March (hailstones up to 15 mm diameter, sparse), 22nd July (soft hail - small hailstones), 2nd September (soft hail - small hailstones). The annual average is 3.3 hail days.

FLOODS: 
Minor flooding occurred in Dumaresq Creek on 28th December. Minor brief flash flooding events may have occurred on other dates not noted here.

 


LTA - Long Term Average     * Windy day - average wind speed higher than 20 kms per hour: 9am to 6pm
** Intensity of frosts:  light - minimum temp > 0.0C,  moderate - minimum temp -3.9C to -0.1C,  severe - minimum temperature <-3.9C.      

 




             Weather Statistics 2014 - Armidale NSW

 

JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

YEAR

 

 

 

RAINFALL  mm

17.2

49.6

101.8

6.4

20.2

35.8

20.8

63.2

17.4

22.4

22.6

159.6

537.0

 

   Long Term Average  mm

101.9

88.9

65.1

45.3

43.1

55.3

48.2

47.5

51.2

67.9

83.8

88.5

786.7

 

 

 

RAIN DAYS

7

9

14

6

6

11

6

11

5

4

8

20

107

 

   Long Term Average  days

10

10

10

8

8

10

9

9

8

9

9

10

110

 

 

 

HIGHEST DAILY RAINFALL  mm

7.2

16.4

25.8

2.8

13.4

9.6

10.4

23.0

8.0

21.4

9.4

28.6

28.6

 

   Day

12

14

2

28

4

29

27

17

26

14

30

6

 

 

 

AVERAGE DAILY MAX TEMP  deg C

28.5

27.7

23.7

21.3

16.7

14.4

13.2

14.1

18.0

24.1

28.0

26.1

21.3

 

   Long Term Average  deg C

26.3

25.3

23.3

20.0

16.3

13.1

12.4

14.2

17.7

20.6

22.8

25.0

19.7

 

 

 

AVERAGE DAILY MIN TEMP  deg C

11.9

11.6

11.2

7.7

2.6

1.3

-0.9

1.1

2.1

5.7

11.4

13.0

6.6

 

   Long Term Average  deg C

12.7

12.6

10.2

6.3

3.0

0.7

-0.3

-0.2

2.5

5.5

8.8

11.1

6.1

 

 

 

AVERAGE GRASS MIN TEMP  deg C

6.6

8.9

7.4

3.0

-1.7

-2.9

-5.6

-3.7

-3.3

0.3

6.3

9.6

2.1

 

   Long Term Average  deg C

9.9

10.0

7.2

3.0

-1.7

-2.9

-4.0

-4.2

-1.2

1.9

6.1

8.2

2.7

 

 

 

HIGHEST MAXIMUM TEMP  deg C

37.1

33.6

27.6

26.0

21.6

19.9

19.0

18.4

25.4

32.4

35.6

31.0

37.1

 

  Day

3

12

16

3

26

1

25

31

30

26

23

17

 

 

 

LOWEST MAXIMUM TEMP  deg C

20.7

21.1

14.9

15.1

6.9

8.3

5.5

7.6

11.1

13.5

22.4

18.1

5.5

 

   Day

23

5

24

30

4

30

18

18

3

25

29

28

 

 

 

HIGHEST MINIMUM TEMP  deg C

19.5

19.4

15.8

14.1

10.8

10.4

6.6

7.2

10.1

12.8

19.1

17.6

19.5

 

   Day

4

16

19

2

2

2

16

23

26

25

21

26

 

 

 

LOWEST MINIMUM TEMP  deg C

7.4

7.6

6.6

0.4

-3.1

-7.3

-8.2

-6.0

-5.5

-0.6

5.7

7.0

-8.2

 

   Day

31

8

12

18

6

27

9

7

19

17

17

31

 

 

 

LOWEST GRASS MIN TEMP  deg C

-0.1

1.1

1.0

-4.0

-7.6

-12.4

-13.8

-11.8

-11.1

-6.0

-1.1

2.2

-13.8

 

   Day

30

9

10

18,21

6

27

9

7

19

17

2

15

 

 

 

FROSTS

0

0

0

6

16

14

23

17

17

5

0

0

98

 

   Long Term Average  days

0

0

1

5

14

17

19

20

15

7

1

0

99

 

 

 

FOGS  days

1

3

5

3

3

7

2

0

0

0

2

0

26

 

   Long Term Average  days

1

1

3

5

5

4

3

2

2

2

1

1

32

 

 

 

THUNDERSTORMS  days

2

3

3

2

0

1

1

0

1

3

8

15

39

 

   Long Term Average  days

6

5

2

1

1

1

0

1

2

4

6

8

37

 

 

 

EVAPORATION  (Class A Pan)  mm

183.0

137.0

103.4

74.8

41.8

38.0

47.0

51.4

86.0

146.2

165.2

133.4

1207.2

 

   Long Term Average  mm

161.6

125.4

113.9

76.3

50.8

36.8

41.9

65.7

95.8

127.6

134.3

159.0

1190.1

 

 

 

AVGE. DAILY EVAPORATION  mm

5.9

4.9

3.3

2.5

1.3

1.3

1.5

1.7

2.9

4.7

5.5

4.3

3.3

 

 

 

AVERAGE DAILY WIND RUN  km

155.1

125.0

109.7

84.9

89.6

123.7

133.4

125.9

127.2

128.9

135.8

135.5

122.9

 

   Long Term Average  km

155.7

148.4

143.3

127.5

125.5

148.0

153.9

168.2

174.1

160.9

155.0

156.8

151.4

 

 

 

PREVAILING 3PM WIND DIRECTION

E

E

E

W

W

W

W

SE

W

W

W

W

 -

 

 

 

FINE SUNNY DAYS ^

16

12

12

12

10

13

19

9

19

21

16

9

168

 

   Long Term Average  days

16

13

16

16

15

13

15

18

20

18

14

15

189

 

 

 

MAXIMUM TEMP > 29.9 deg.   days

13

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

8

2

34

 

MAXIMUM TEMP < 10.0 deg.   days

0

0

0

0

2

2

3

1

0

0

0

0

8

 

MINIMUM TEMP < 5.0 deg.   days

0

0

0

9

24

24

28

24

26

13

0

0

148

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 ^  Fine Sunny Day -  a dry sunny day generally free from excessive cloud

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


       
Back to Weather Home