Cairns weather: Western thunderstorms and lack of lows behind city’s below-average rain

There are two major factors that explain how Cairns lost the summer rainfall race to a bush town with 300 sunny days a year. FIND OUT THOSE FACTORS

IF measuring rainfall was a sport, then this summer’s “wooden spoon” was handed to a surprise Far North contender, which was outperformed by a town that boasts of 300 sunny days a year and markets itself as the gateway to the bush.

In a three-month period from December to February where total rainfall across the entire region was below average, the Far North’s “city in a garden” – Cairns – recorded less rain than Mareeba, where locals rely on irrigation systems to grow anything sustainable.

The mean rainfall in Cairns in December is 182.1mm, in January it is 402.4mm and in February it is 441.8mm. But the rainfall in December 2021 was 117.2mm and in January 2022 it was 375mm and 127.2mm in February 2022 – totalling 619.4mm.

For the same period, Mareeba’s total rainfall was 705.2mm.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Shane Kennedy said in the 15 years of rainfall data available for Mareeba, it was unlikely the western community had ever recorded more rainfall than Cairns throughout the wet season of October to February.

He said there were two explanations for why more rain fell inland this summer.

“There was more of a pattern of showers and thunderstorms particularly generating from the Cape region, and while Mareeba has that higher elevation, Cairns is more protected from it with the ranges,” Mr Kennedy said.

A lack of tropical lows this summer has led to a decrease in total rainfall for Cairns.

“Cairns generally won’t see too many thunderstorms, unless there’s a lot of southerly winds or westerly monsoons. So with the absence of those factors Mareeba picked up the higher totals.

“The second one would be there haven’t been too many tropical lows really impacting the coast.

“Obviously they’ll favour the coast more than inland, and that would’ve helped bring Cairns’ total up.”

For the remainder of the week, Cairns can expect partly cloudy days with daytime temperatures between 35-36C.

Originally published as Cairns weather: Western thunderstorms and lack of lows behind city’s below-average rain