Hot and dry – that could be 2018 summed up in a nutshell for Parkes when talking about the weather.
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It was a year that saw a very dry winter, monthly rainfall well below the long term average, too many consecutive days with zero rain and some record-breaking hot weather.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), July not only claimed the hottest July day in 20 years in Parkes on July 5 at 22.1 degrees, but it also recorded the lowest July rainfall in 76 years.
Just 2mm of rain fell for that month in Parkes, recorded at the Parkes Airport weather station, 45.5mm below the long term monthly average.
The 42 degree day on December 20 last year equalled the hottest December day on record, that being December 31, 2005.
Every month except for November, came in well under the long term monthly rainfall average for Parkes – seven of those months less than half the average.
Besides July, March and April were very dry as well, recording only 6.4mm and 6mm respectively for the entire month.
The long term average for March is 54mm and 31.4mm for April.
It was almost the complete opposite for November last year, with the month (110.8mm of rain) exceeding its monthly rainfall average by 50.9mm.
The BOM recorded Parkes’ total rainfall for 2018 at 328.4mm, much lower than the town’s yearly average of 636.2mm but higher than the driest year on record being 248.2mm in 2006.
Let’s take a closer look at the last six months in Parkes.
June had average temperatures and nine days of rain that amounted to 28.4mm, which is significantly better than the previous year when just 0.4mm fell on one day in June 2017.
The long term monthly rainfall average for June is 52.6mm.
July only had six days of rain and August had seven days, totalling 17.8mm for the month. The monthly average for August is 44.1mm.
September had 21 consecutive days of zero rainfall but 17.2mm did manage to drop over three days.
Again, this is better than 2017 when that September experienced 29 days of no rain and just one day of 10mm.
The monthly average for September is 44.8mm.
Five days of rain brought 34.8mm in October, the average being 50.7mm, while November had 10 days of rain with 29.2mm falling overnight on the 28th, followed by 18.2mm on the 29th.
And 28.2mm fell over six days in December, with the first 10 days and the last 10 days of the month recording zero rain.
