January 2025 Weather report

 The numbers suggest a temperate moist month.

Rain

Mallacoota recorded 89.2 mm of rain during the month, 176% of the median and 137% of mean fall.  his came in 4 events spread through the middle of the month.  On a trip to Merimbula we noticed that the grazing country had greened up quite well. 

It is too early to really make any sense of the pro-rata estimate of rain for the year but the pattern is fairly typical of the situation in January.

Temperatures

A significantly cold start to the month was followed by a hot period (not quite a heat wave) and then a gradual cooling with a very mild end to the month.  This is illustrated well by the development of the anomaly - which ended at -0.23C.

The value of the anomaly continues to suggest a downwards movement, especially the moving average, which excludes seasonal variation.

Both components of the average (minimum and maximum) show great variation relative to the long term daily average at my WS, but with reasonably consistently low values for the last 1/3rd of the month.

Minimum temperatures.

The average daily minimum was 16.2C in the lower part of recent values.  The lowest value recorded, 10.4C on 3/1, was very significantly below average although there have been 45 lower January minima (including BoM records) since 1994, and 4 other days were significantly below.  3 days were significantly above the long term January average minimum.

Maximum temperatures 

The average daily maximum was 25.38C, in the higher part of recent values.  The highest value recorded, 36.8C on 5/1, was very significantly above  average with only 25 January maxima (including BoM records) since 1994.  There are 11 January maxima - including those adjusted to exclude the cooling effect of the sea breeze at the airport site - above 40C.  In 2025 6 other days were significantly above the long term average maximum.  Only 1 day - 30/1 - was significantly below the long term January average minimum.

No period reached 3 consecutive days with significantly high maxima and minima (forming a heat wave) but from 4- 6 January only 1 of the 6 reading was not significantly high so I rate this as a "hot spell"

Humidity

The daily humidity chart is reasonably normal apart from some complexity at the end of the 4 - 6 January hot spell.

The mean morning % is a little above the 6 year average while that for the afternoon reading is a little below the average.

Wind

The average daily wind run (122 km) was below the average for the previous 5 years (128km) although a few days were somewhat draughty.

The run of 305 km on 4/1 was the 6th (of 155) January runs I have recorded while the 270km on 12/1 was the 10th longest