Climatology
This page presents Australia's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
The Australian continent covers a large range of climate zones, from the tropics in the north to the arid interior and temperate regions in the south. Australia is the driest of all inhabited continents, with considerable rainfall and temperature variability both across the country and from year to year. Australia has a wide range of daily temperatures, with summer temperatures ranging from of 5.7°C in New South Wales to 30.8°C in Queensland, and to 8°C in Tasmania.