31 March 2006 - The Hon Greg Hunt
MP, Parliamentary Secretary with ministerial responsibility
for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, today
announced the release of the 2005 Australian Climate
Summary prepared by the Bureau's National Climate
Centre.
"This is the twelfth Annual Climate Summary
produced by the Bureau and they provide a concise
and easy to read reference on Australia's climate
since the mid-11000s," Mr Hunt said
"Statistics on extremes are provided for each
state and there is also a table summarizing the
annual observations for each capital city."
"Last year was the country's warmest year on
record and April broke the record for the month
with the temperature most above normal - all across
Australia," Mr Hunt said.
"The year was also a dry one - with central
WA, much of Queensland and bordering regions of
NSW, SA and NT all recording significantly below
normal falls."
"In Queensland it was the 18th driest year
of the last 106 years."
"However, Melbourne broke its all time record
for the most rainfall recorded in a 24 hour period
on February 2nd and 3rd and a new wind speed record
was set at Mt Hotham on August 30 clocking 198km/h."
"In August, snow even fell to sea level in
Victoria - the first time since 1951."
Mr Hunt said the record rain and wind in Victoria
was not the only variation on the warmest year statistics.
"Floods even occurred on the Gold Coast in
June, in Northern Tasmania in August and during
the Adelaide summer last November.
"However, despite these severe weather events
the overall mean temperature anomaly for 2005 exceeded
the old record set in 1998 by 0.25C and temperatures
for both days and nights were above normal across
central Australia."
Mr Hunt said the Annual Climate Summary documented
all of the weather events over the year in detail
and gave the public and media the opportunity to
have a reference to the changing face of Australian
climate.
"There are also maps showing the month-to-month
variations in rainfall and temperature across the
nation, together with graphs that place the annual
values into historical context."
This colour booklet covers all major aspects of
the Australian climate for the calendar year, and
is available from the National Climate Centre and
on-line at the Bureau's web site www.bom.gov.au.
Two satellite images are featured on the cover;
one showing the early formative stages of an intense
low which brought floods to Victoria, and the other
displaying the clear eye and spiralling clouds of
severe tropical cyclone Ingrid.
