2005 ANNUAL CLIMATE SUMMARY WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD

31 March 2006 - The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary with ministerial responsibility for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, today announced the release of the 2005 Australian Climate Summary prepared by the Bureau's National Climate Centre.
"This is the twelfth Annual Climate Summary produced by the Bureau and they provide a concise and easy to read reference on Australia's climate since the mid-11000s," Mr Hunt said
"Statistics on extremes are provided for each state and there is also a table summarizing the annual observations for each capital city."
"Last year was the country's warmest year on record and April broke the record for the month with the temperature most above normal - all across Australia," Mr Hunt said.
"The year was also a dry one - with central WA, much of Queensland and bordering regions of NSW, SA and NT all recording significantly below normal falls."
"In Queensland it was the 18th driest year of the last 106 years."
"However, Melbourne broke its all time record for the most rainfall recorded in a 24 hour period on February 2nd and 3rd and a new wind speed record was set at Mt Hotham on August 30 clocking 198km/h."
"In August, snow even fell to sea level in Victoria - the first time since 1951."
Mr Hunt said the record rain and wind in Victoria was not the only variation on the warmest year statistics.
"Floods even occurred on the Gold Coast in June, in Northern Tasmania in August and during the Adelaide summer last November.
"However, despite these severe weather events the overall mean temperature anomaly for 2005 exceeded the old record set in 1998 by 0.25C and temperatures for both days and nights were above normal across central Australia."
Mr Hunt said the Annual Climate Summary documented all of the weather events over the year in detail and gave the public and media the opportunity to have a reference to the changing face of Australian climate.
"There are also maps showing the month-to-month variations in rainfall and temperature across the nation, together with graphs that place the annual values into historical context."
This colour booklet covers all major aspects of the Australian climate for the calendar year, and is available from the National Climate Centre and on-line at the Bureau's web site www.bom.gov.au.
Two satellite images are featured on the cover; one showing the early formative stages of an intense low which brought floods to Victoria, and the other displaying the clear eye and spiralling clouds of severe tropical cyclone Ingrid.