It has continued to be notably warmer and drier than normal during May at Perth.
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It has been that way for most of the time since November last year. This month in Perth up to May 19, the mean maximum temperature is 26.3 degrees, more than four degrees above normal and looks set to break the record for the warmest ever May of both 2003 and 2009, which did set up a mild, slightly wetter than normal winter in our regions, but high temperatures for November and early December, then a wetter than average summer. The Riverina and North East Victoria both had a somewhat dry summer in both 2003-04 and 2009-10 except for heavy rain in February 2010.
Adelaide is having its driest February to the third week of May in 183 years of records with only 15 millimetres rainfall. The previous driest such period in Adelaide was 30 millimetres in 2005. That year our regions had a very wet June and a notably wet spring but the summer season of 2005-06 was dry and very hot, the hottest summer in Coonabarabran for 87 years.
The Riverina and North East Victoria also had a very dry and hot summer in 2005-06 and this continued very hot to the second week of March 2006. The records show that summer was the fifth hottest since 1882 at both Deniliquin and Hay and the fourth hottest in North East Victoria back to 1908. Hopefully we can avoid that and 2025 will not be very dry like 2006.
Widespread heavy frosts across region
An active cold front passed through Victoria and the Riverina late Friday, May 17, and behind this front a very cold SSW airstream resulted in widespread heavy frosts right up to Parkes by Sunday morning May 19. Wangaratta recorded minus 4.1 degrees, the coldest for the third week of May since minus 5 in 1999.
Last month along the coastal fringe of South Australia many towns had their lowest April temperature since 1999. The rest of 1999 was somewhat wetter than average from early June to December then a warmer January followed by a wet stormy February and March 2000.
Wagga's minus 3.1 degrees was the coldest for the third week of May since minus 4.4 in both 1957 and 1920.
The first frosts reached across the border into Queensland on Monday, May 20, where Roma recorded minus 0.4 and Charleville minus 0.3 degrees. Last year both towns reported their first frosts about 10 days earlier on May 8, 2023. Currently the sequence of cold frosty mornings looks set to run to the end of May.
Melbourne has not recorded a maximum temperature this month of reaching 20 degrees for the first time in May since 1968 and before that in 1926 and in 1920.
