Hot start to 2019 after Australia ends its third-warmest year

The searing end to 2018 for much of Australia will likely make it the third-hottest on record for maximum temperatures with little early relief in sight in the new year, preliminary data from the Bureau of Meteorology shows.

Less heat and more rain: what many Australians will be hoping 2019 brings.CREDIT:

For mean temperatures, 2018 will also come in among the top five, according to bureau meteorologist Skye Tobin. The year was also "very much drier" than average for Australia, particularly in the south-east.

Read the story from The Age by Peter Hannam - “Hot start to 2019 after Australia ends its third-warmest year.”

Australia in winter 2017

The winter mean temperature was very much above average for Australia, placing at fifth-warmest on record with an anomaly of +1.11 °C. Mean temperatures were the second-warmest on record for winter for Queensland, third-warmest for Western Australia, and ninth-warmest for the Northern Territory.

Mean maximum temperatures were the highest on record (+1.90 °C) for Australia as a whole. Daytime temperatures averaged across winter were above average for nearly all of Australia, with more than 90% of Australia in the highest 10% of historical observations (decile 10). Large areas of northern Australia observed record high mean maxima; for Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory winter mean maxima were the warmest on record, while winter days were the second-warmest on record for South Australia and third-warmest on record for New South Wales.

Read the BOM report - “Australia in winter 2017.”