While parts of Australia are experiencing an unusually cold start to winter today, the country as a whole just registered its third warmest autumn on record.

Australia’s average mean temperature between March and May was 23.44ºC, which is 1.44ºC above the 1961 to 1990 average. It is also the country’s third highest autumn mean temperature in records dating back to 1910, beaten only by 2005 (+1.78ºC) and 2016 (+1.98ºC).

Image: Australia’s rainfall and mean temperature deciles during autumn 2022.

It was also Australia’s wettest autumn in a decade, while NSW and the Murray Darling Basin had their 7th and 11th wettest autumn in 123 years of records, respectively.

The NT had a notably warm and dry season, with the territory as a whole registering its 2nd warmest and 12th driest autumn on record.

Autumn continued an exceptionally wet start to 2022 for large areas of eastern Australia, with parts of eastern NSW and southeast QLD registering their wettest January-to-May period on record. This included Sydney’s wettest and Brisbane’s 3rd wettest start to a year on record.

Image: Year-to-date rainfall deciles up to the end of May. Source: Bureau of Meteorology.