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I have just pasted all the Buereau of Metrology data in to Excel and analysed the results. I found some of the things expected and have been long discussed; I also found some real shockers. I analysed Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brissy and here are the results based on averages supplied (so don't shoot the messenger!):

Highest Temp ever recorded

In mid summer, as we all know, Melbourne competes well in the hottest days stakes - when I told my Sydney mate I was moving down there, he said "Bloody hell it gets hot in Melbourne" like he thought I was mad to go) but by mid winter, all other state capitals record a "highest ever" that is a wopping 7 degrees difference over Melbourne’s. 25-27 as apposed to a meagre 18 in Melbourne. (I am sure Melbourne has recorded a highest temp of over 18 in mid winter and this is one of the means I have trouble with)

Mean Temp

Adelaide and Sydney get similar mean temps; Adelaide gets a marginally hotter summer, perhaps 1 degree, in Jan and Feb; but Sydney a hotter spring; (Sep and Oct) a sizeable 3 degree difference.

Melbourne cools off big time in autumn, equally in Apr and May going from 24-16, 4 degrees each time; so does Adelaide, but markedly later, in May.

Melboune and Adelaide are the coldest in mid winter, 13 and 14, Sydney and Perth also twin together and do better, 17 and 18 respectively; Brissy gets to a glorious mean of 20!

Perth loses a couple of degrees every month from May to Jul, increasing by the same Aug-Dec; very uniform and pleasant. But don't get too smug Sandgropers, Read on...(!)

Min temps

2 warring and proud cities…Melbourne vs Sydney...lets see

In July and August, Sydney is on average 1 degree colder than Melbourne, the two warring cities are only a degree apart from May-Sep. I remember my first Australian winter in Sydney, and boy, it did seem colder than last winter, my first in Melbourne!

In January-March though, they are very different - almost 3, 4 degrees, which is appreciable,….in December, the first month of Summer, it is 4 degrees clear…a significant differance..enough to make you decide to put on a fleece or go inside..

Adelaide’s coldest temps are almost exactly like Sydney, but are 2 more degrees warmer in winter..Adelaide is better in winter, Sydney in Spring.

Rainfall

Most shocking, well extreme stat, Perth gets sod all rain in January, mid summer, almost half that of Adelaide, next ranked, a quarter of Melbourne, one tenth of Brissy’s tropical summer showers!!

By July, in Perth, rainfall has increased by almost 130 times!!
By far the wettest winter aussie capital; how the others compare - 2.5x less (Syd/Mel/Adelaide, all similar, in that order) to 6 times (Brissy)….

Melbourne is the only state to get drier in Feb, all other states get wetter in February, Brissy (by 25pc), Perth then wakes up and finally gets 6 times wetter on it's way to that mid winter target!!!

As we all know, total rainfall is not really an issue, it’s how many days we have to suffer it. Most of us want to escape perpertual drizzle; we don’t mind the occasional “let’s make a rain slide down the paddock” fun and games.

Not only does Sydney gets the most annual rain 1300mm, almost a third more than Brissy (1000mm), in fact, which you could naively accuse of being the Australian Capital City rain culprit - save say Darwin - is that a capital?

It also gets rain days that are consistently uniform throughout the year 8-11 days per month, say 1 in 3. Having said that in Jan, it dumps faster than in Brissy as it rains on 11, days rather than 10, but gets 40mm more. It is more uniform than Melbourne which ranges from about 11(summer)-16(winter) rain days in the year …

Melbourne gets an occurence of rain more all year, getting worse in the winter, raining on 1 day in 2, although Melbourne averages moreorless the same amount of rain all year, unlike Brisbane and Sydney..which cop it in the summer.

another Sydney quirk: June is massively, I mean massively, more wet than July, so the maligned “tropical wet” is not so bad in Brissy after all….and as rain in Perth falls, reportedly, mostly at night, Sydney has to be the main culprit for rain.

You’ll often hear the line : “Queensland, beautiful one day, perfect the next, Melbourne beautiful one day…we hope”.

Maybe it is true:
Brissy gets almost 10 times clearer winter days than Melbourne, Sydney get 5 times, even despite all that rain, Adelaide can manage only twice that of Melbourne….

Melbourne at best – in summer, gets a cloudy day 1 in 3 days, 2/3rds in winter.

Both Sydney and Adelaide get twice as many cloudy days one solstice than the other; except that Adelaide gets it in the winter, Sydney gets it in the summer; Adelaide has cloudier days all year stil.

Conclusions: Providing that the rain in Perth really does fall at night, it does seem to have the best climate, and my next post, humidity might prove that in a 2 horse race between Brissy and Perth.

Sydney has weirder rainier weather than you realise; frankly, statistically, apart from higher daily mean temps, it is not only wet..it rains more water, if more consistently and predictably. You are more likely to get rain in Melbourne on any given day, more so in winter, letting up in summer, the reverse of Brisbane, but the rain rate is far less almost half that of Sydney.

Adelaide, despite being in the driest state etc has more ordinary weather than you might expect in terms of temperatures; I think people overestimate it – but not by much.

Melbourne’s weather is without a doubt, and I also speak from experience here, not as bad as it is made out to be.

Brisbane is not as wet or as "tropical" as may be expected, especilally compared to Sydney which is not even Sub tropical.

Enjoy

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wmoore

And just to add to this mammoth project, clouds have just appeared in front of my eyes in NE England

You must be bored at the mo Badge but you've come up with the something to think about for anyone using the climate as a major factor in their move.

JackTheLad

I've noticed a good trend in Brizzie as well, showers bubble up over the Darling downs in the afternoon, and eventually reach Bayside evening time. Which means sunny days and rainfall in the evening or night, which is great for most people... except me who has been soaked a few times walkin the dog last thing at night.

I've been told this summer wasn't a very representative summer in Brissy, but I have to say, it never got extremely hot,the highest I recorded in the back garden was 35.1 degrees.

And we only had 1 of the famous massive thunderstorms (and it wasn't that big or massive or cause much damage).

Maybe next year!

Cheers,
JTL

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It wasn't my personal recording, but it did get to at least 36/7? here in Melbourne, well short of the 40 we normally get historically several times over the summmer. Apparently in years gone by, you could expect to get at least 2 weeks of it.

cheers

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Larissa

I'm waiting for the shock Badge :scared: Will it come thru the keyboard :scared:
I'm a bit suprised about some of the comparisons but it's as I expected for Perth. I'd be interested to know about humidity as I felt that Perth was quite sticky recently and when we arrived in October - but it was drier when it was really hot.

kiwichild

If you arrived in Perth in october and have survived so far, CONGRAGULATIONS!!! You have been thru the worst of it !

kiwichild

Perth has been known to experience heatwaves where everyday was over 40c for a week or more and highest recorded was 51c (luckily I wasn't here then. Highest while I've been here was 46c)

Larissa

and without aircon and insulation, we should get a medal lol... at least it seems to be cooling off now and hopefully we can get our own place soon. Ahhh well, at least we will be acclimatised.
Note to newcomers... don't go for a cheap rental without aircon in the summer, you will be walking around in you undies, which isn't amusing when someone knocks at the door and you're scrambling for your clothes

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In mid summer Australia is actually very similar nationwidewhen it comes to relative humiidty. Now this might have something to do with warmer temps holding more moisture, that I do know, and maybe dewpoints, which I don't understand.....BUT...at 9am:

Sydney is the highest humid place 71pc; then Brissy, 64,

Melbourne on 61, Adelaide and Perth on 50ish...the Sydney result is probably swayed by the fact Sydney gets more rain, and maybe Brissy only gets the rain in the afternoon...after the 3pm recording...Melbourne is colder and damper than SA and WA but as the temp is often lower, the higher humidity is not noticeable; after all, when you are caught out in rain, you don't say, bugger, it is humid, you say bugger, I am wet.....you only say it is humid just before it rains..:-) providing it is also hot as well..

In mid winter, at 9am, only 2pc seperate Sydney, adelaide , melbourne and perth with Melbourne the most humid - why - the rain and mist of course.

I am not an expert but now I feel that its not the humidity you should be whining about, its the temp, ie how hot it is, and whether it is likely to rain any time soon, remember humidity is only the moisture content, it can be bloody high, yet if it is cool or cold, you don't really suffer, eg like UK winters even though if you fly from Germany to London you can feel the increased moisture in the air.

A year or so ago - people were saying that UK extreme hot temps seemed worse than even Brissy temps and they got shouted down - "of course Brissy is more humid", well it might seem partly because Brisbane is just damn hotter..in other words the actual temperature is more important than people realise.

I'm guessing that people suffer in Brissy because it is very hot, much hotter than the UK, AND the moisture content is quite high, as the afternoon storm brews up.

I am sure moisture content is linked to temperature, so by definition then, relative humidity figures are going to be misleading anyhow, are there "absolute" humidity indicators? Any met people here?

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Just want to say that on anecdotal evidence some of the BOM figures are way out, especially on highest extremes,then of course, I took regions of cities that are not typical of the metro areas as a whole, or the outer suburbs and regional centres. All stats remember!!

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kiwichild

Just wear your hat, shades(sunglasses) thongs (jandals to kiwis) and carry a hugemungous bottle of water everywhere, oh, and walk in the shade wherever possible and u'll be right Oh, and limit the walking to 20-30 mins at a time

kiwichild

Well if you leave UK and go live in Tom Price or marble bar, then you have only got yourself to balme!! can hit 60c there :scared:

Larissa

Maybe we should compare sweatiness... need a recruit from each city/ area and need to control other variables... hmmm....
Badge, aren't you suposed to be ill? Your sudden weather obsession is beginning to cause concern

kiwichild

Go live in Albany or Esperance if you can find work, then you'll be fine. Much more agreeable climate, so is Tasmania.

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Like I said, I am convalescing. I feel fine. I am on my own in the house as the Chief of Staff is over at a mates. So I have time to do the project I have put off for months.

I have really got into metrology since I came to Australia, and I find it interesting. I am actually considering doing a course and making some thing of it. (Although it might take years to get the quals needed to get even a half decnet job)

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