Adelaide weather: ‘Unseasonably’ cold start to summer as heavy rain falls in Adelaide Hills

After a very soggy weekend for much of the state, the weather bureau has confirmed what we all suspect – it’s been an “unseasonably” wet and cold start to summer. See where the rain fell.

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It may be the start of summer, but you wouldn’t know it.

The weather bureau says it has been an “unseasonably” cold start to the season, with temperatures well below the December average of 27C.

A top of just 18C is forecast today – slightly higher than the 17.7C recorded on Sunday, which also brought a bout of rain that called off play during the Australia v Pakistan test in the evening.

More than 5mm of rain has fallen at the West Tce station since 9am on Sunday, but it’s a different story for the Adelaide Hills, especially in Ashton where 30mm has been recorded.

Since Friday, a total of 13.8mm has fallen in Edithburgh on the lower Yorke Peninsula, where fires destroyed several properties and burnt 5000ha two weeks ago.

While the rain is a welcome sight, there has been no fire activity there since Thursday.

Meanwhile, Port Lincoln has received 9.8mm over the weekend after two homes and six sheds were lost in a bushfire on November 11.

Much of the North West and North East Pastoral districts, however, have missed out on rain, with just 0.4mm falling in Tarcoola and 0.2mm in Yunta.

The Adelaide Hills received the most, with 40.6mm falling in Ashton in the last three days and 39.6mm in Crafers West.

THREE-DAY RAINFALL FIGURES

Ashton: 40.6mm

Cherryville: 40.4mm

Crafers West: 39.6mm

Mount Lofty: 34.8mm

Woodhouse: 31.4mm

Sevenhill: 22.8mm

Eudunda: 20mm

Coulta: 14.6mm

Edithburgh: 13.8mm

Noarlunga: 11.2mm

Bordertown: 10.4mm

Port Lincoln: 9.8mm

Adelaide (West Tce): 9.4mm

More than 9mm of rain has been recorded in Adelaide since Friday. Picture: AAP/Morgan Sette

Senior forecaster Simon Timcke said by Monday afternoon, the rain will begin to ease off.

“For Adelaide at least, there won’t be any showers left by mid-afternoon; they’ll all clear away pretty quickly,” he said.

“For the rest of the week, we sort of see the showers contract south-eastwards today and then they persist down the (there) for Wednesday and Thursday.”

Despite Adelaide’s cold start to summer, the bureau predicts the rest of the season will be warmer than average across South Australia and drier in the southeast and agricultural areas.

Rain falls during day three of the 2nd Domain Test between Australia and Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Releasing the 2019-20 summer outlook, weather bureau head of long-range forecasts Dr Andrew Watkins said SA was headed for more heatwaves after a very warm and dry spring.

“Many areas are getting above 80 per cent in terms of the chance of having a warmer than normal summer.”

Preliminary analysis of spring weather observations will be finalised today, but some trends are already apparent.

“South Australia was very warm and dry particularly during the daytime periods,” Dr Watkins said.

“It’s looking at coming in as one of the top five driest springs on record.”

This week’s forecast shows the weather will hover around the low-mid 20s before reaching 35C on Sunday.

Here’s the weather low-down for this week:

Tuesday: 21C, partly cloudy. 20% chance of rain

Wednesday: 22C, partly cloudy

Thursday: 23C, partly cloudy

Friday: 23C, partly cloudy

Saturday: 27C, sunny

Sunday: 35C, sunny