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Good, solid November rain for Sydney and New South Wales

There were no huge departures from the average for Sydney city this month, but rainfall was fortunately close to average, and elsewhere round the state, rainfall was well above average.

Sydney itself picked up 73mm for the month, below the long term average of 83mm, but only the driest November since 2006. For Spring as a whole, the total of 239mm was nearly 10mm above the normal and only slightly drier than last year.

Elsewhere around the state, large numbers of stormy days as moisture-laden troughs crossed the state brought the best falls since Winter to large swathes of the inland, particularly on the weekends of the 8th and 22nd.

Tamworth recorded 284mm for the month, the wettest November since records began in 1993. Further south, Albury, which largely missed out on early Spring rainfall, picked up 65mm, the wettest month since July. The recently dry Riverina also saw its best rainfall in months: Griffith, for example, picked up 50mm, the wettest month since December last year.

In terms of temperatures, it was a mixed bag. The average maximum for Sydney came in at 24 degrees, very close to the long term normal, but still the warmest since 2006. Highs of 30 degrees on the 3rd and 6th were the highest for the month, while the lowest of 20 degrees was recorded on the 23rd ? a day that also saw late season snow fall on the Central and Southern Tablelands when a deep low spun up over the western Tasman Sea.

The minimum temperature for Sydney averaged to 17 degrees, one up on the long term average of 16.

?Moisture levels were generally high over the state during November, and this lead to increased cloud cover and kept minimum temperatures generally above average,? said weatherzone.com.au meteorologist Jessica Trevena.

When maximums and minimums were combined, the average for November worked out to 20 degrees, only slightly above the long term normal.

Over the coming Summer, warm sea surface temperatures over the Coral Sea and seas north of Australia means rainfall is likely to remain above normal across the northeast and east of the state, including Sydney. Further south and west though, rainfall totals are likely to drop back to below normal as we head into a climatologically drier time of year. Temperatures are also likely to be above average for the Summer quarter.


- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2008

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