Australia: 2016 fourth-warmest year on record

Australia in 2016 saw its fourth-warmest year on record, with the annual national mean temperature 0.87 °C above average. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has released is Annual Climate summary for 2016.

Summary showed that ocean temperatures were the warmest on record for the Australian region, with an annual mean sea surface temperature 0.73 °C above average. March and autumn as a whole were the warmest on record for Australian mean temperature.

2016 were amongst the ten warmest years on record for Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Rainfall was above average for most of Australia, but below average for areas of the northern coasts between the Gascoyne in Western Australia and Townsville in Queensland, and pockets of coastal southeast Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. Nationally-averaged rainfall was 17% above average for the year, at 544.99 mm (1961–1990 average 465.2 mm).

Australia saw a strong El Niño influencing Australia’s climate at the beginning of the year, before breaking down during autumn and a strong negative Indian Ocean Dipole influenced Australia’s climate from May to November. The central tropical Pacific approached La Niña thresholds during spring, but a La Niña did not develop