December 2020 the NT’s coldest in two decades, wettest in four years
THE Territory had its coolest December in 20 years last month, despite experiencing its fifth-warmest year on record in 2020.
Northern Territory
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THE Territory had its coolest December in 20 years last month, despite experiencing its fifth-warmest year on record in 2020.
“Daytime temperatures were well below average across virtually all of the NT, with the overall mean maximum temperature ranked as the lowest in December since 2000,” a Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman said.
Records were set and broken all over the place with several locations experiencing their coldest December day on record or lowest December mean daily maximum temperature on record.
The western half of the NT experienced temperatures more than 2C below the long-term average.
Even for areas that didn’t set all-time records, some locations had their lowest December mean daily maximum temperature in at least 20 years.
However, while the days were cooler, the nights were slightly warmer.
“The Territory-wide night-time temperature was marginally above average during the month,” the spokeswoman said.
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The Territory also had its largest total rainfall for December since 2016, and fifth-highest December total since records commenced in 1900.
Across the NT, rainfall totals were almost 1.5 times higher than the long-term December average.
Darwin Airport recorded 382mm of rain across the month, which is 153 per cent of the long-term average of 250.3mm.
Total rainfall at Alice Springs Airport was 86.6mm, which is a whopping 224 per cent of the long-term average of 38.7mm.
Only a couple of tiny regions in the far south of the Territory had rainfall totals below average.
Some central regions recorded rainfall more than four times what they’d typically get in December.
As for the extremes of the month, the hottest day was on December 5 at Jervois, about 350km northeast of Alice Springs, it boiled up to 46C.
The coldest day was at Arltunga, 110km east of Alice Springs, on December 23, where the temperature didn’t exceed 17.1C.
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Arltunga also experienced the coldest overnight temperature when it dipped to a chilly 13.2C on Christmas Eve.
However, in keeping with the trend of generally warmer night-time temperatures, Artlunga had its warmest December night on record.
The warmest night was recorded at Walungurru Airport on December 17, when it never dropped below 31.1C.
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