User:Luxure/Sydney Climate

Climate
Sydney has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa) with warm, sometimes hot summers and mild winters, with rainfall spread throughout the year. The weather is moderated by proximity to the ocean, and more extreme temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs. The warmest months are January and February, with an average air temperature range at Observatory Hill of 18.7 – for January and 18.8 – for February. An average of 14.9 days a year have temperatures of more than 30 C.

In winter, temperatures rarely drop below 5 C in coastal areas. The coldest month is July, with an average range of 8.0 –. Rainfall is fairly evenly spread through the year, but is slightly higher during the first half of the year. The average annual rainfall, with moderate to low variability, is 1213.8 mm, with rain falling on an average of 143.5 days a year. Snowfall was last reported in the Sydney City area in 1836, while a fall of graupel, or soft hail, mistaken by many for snow, in July 2008, has raised the possibility that the 1836 event was not snow, either. Extreme temperatures have ranged from 45.8 C on 18 January 2013 to 2.1 C on 22 June 1932, the lowest recorded minimum at Observatory Hill. At the Sydney Airport station, extremes have ranged from 46.4 to -0.1 C.

The city is rarely affected by cyclones, although remnants of ex-cyclones do affect the city. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation plays an important role in determining Sydney's weather patterns: drought and bushfire on the one hand, and storms and flooding on the other, associated with the opposite phases of the oscillation. Many areas of the city bordering bushland have experienced bushfires, these tend to occur during the spring and summer. The city is also prone to severe hail storms and wind storms. One such storm was the 1999 hailstorm, which severely damaged Sydney's eastern and city suburbs. The storm produced massive hailstones of at least 9 cm in diameter and resulting in insurance losses of around A$1.7 billion in less than five hours.

The Bureau of Meteorology has reported that 2002 through 2005 were the warmest summers in Sydney since records began in 1859. The summer of 2007–2008, however, proved to be one of the coolest summers on record. Warmer and drier conditions came back in 2009 and 2010, when above-average temperatures were recorded. In 2009, the dry conditions brought a severe dust storm towards eastern Australia. In 2011, above-average rainfall was recorded.

On 18 January 2013, Sydney experienced record-breaking temperatures with 45.8 C recorded at Observatory Hill. The highest minimum temperature recorded at Observatory Hill is 27.6 C, in February 2011 while the lowest maximum temperature is 7.7 C, recorded in July 1868.

The average annual temperature of the sea is above 20 C, and the monthly average ranges from 18 C in July to 23 C in January.