Press Release

Winter ends as Perth's second driest on record

31/08/2010: It is now officially Perth's second driest winter on record, even despite some good rainfall in July, according to weatherzone.com.au. It's also the coldest in at least 14 years.

Perth has only received 63 millimetres for the whole of August, under half the long-term average for the month. Rain days were also half of the average; the city only recorded eight rain days this year in contrast to the average of 16. Across the whole of winter, the rainfall total was 256 millimetres, almost 160 millimetres below average.

The rest of the Lower West district has joined Perth in experiencing a significant rainfall deficit, with most locations below 60 percent of their average winter total.

“The southwest corner of Western Australia has been fairly dry this winter,” said Weatherzone meteorologist Samuel Terry. “This is most likely due to the lack of strong cold fronts pushing in from the south. Normally in winter, fronts will force in the warm, humid air over the west, causing rain, but obviously with less fronts, there'll be less rain.”

The persistent dryness over Perth hasn't been the only notable characteristic of winter 2010: it's also been colder than usual.

Minimum temperatures in the city only reached 6.4 degrees, the coldest on record.

Maximum temperatures averaged 18.8 degrees, which is much less unusual. However, by combining the average minimum and maximum temperature this makes it Perth's coldest winter in at least 14 years.

“The main factor in the overall coldness of the season was the average winter minimum,” Terry explained. “Dry air and clear skies allow the mercury to plummet faster during the night. This is what we've seen in Perth this year, closely linked with the lack of rain events.”

“We should pick up a shower or two during Wednesday morning, but the outlook for the rest of the week is still a dry one, unlike for eastern Australia, which is set to receive some heavy falls over the weekend.”

Media Inquiries:

Samuel Terry
media@weatherzone.com.au
02 9965 9269

About Weatherzone:

Weatherzone is Australia's most popular commercial meteorological resource, supplying weather information to most of Australia's major television broadcasters and websites. www.weatherzone.com.au has been developed by a team of world class meteorologists and features user friendly, up-to-the minute access to weather across the country.

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