User:Luxure/Zv92 Sydney Climate

Climate
Sydney has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa) with warm summers, mild winters, and uniform annual rainfall. The city's weather is moderated by its proximity to the ocean and more extreme conditions are recorded further inland. Temperatures in the western suburbs tend to be 2 C-change higher than the coast during summer and 2 C-change lower during winter. Sydney's position on the edge of the Pacific Ocean means that it is influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Sea temperatures average 21 C and range between 19 C in July and 24 C in January.

January is the warmest month of the year in Sydney with an average temperature of 18.7 C to 25.9 C. On average, the temperature reaches 30 C or more on fourteen days each year. The highest temperature recorded in Sydney was 45.8 C on 18 January 2013 during a prolonged heat wave across Australia. Temperatures in winter rarely drop below 5 C in coastal areas. The coldest month is July when the average temperature ranges between 8 C and 16.3 C. The lowest temperature on record was 2.1 C on 22 June 1932. Rainfall is generally even throughout the year, averaging 1212.4 mm, with slightly more occurring during the months from January to July. It rains on 143 days each year on average.



Snowfall in the metropolitan area was last reported in 1836. A fall of soft hail known as graupel happened in 2008 and this raised doubts about whether the 1836 reports were accurate. On 23 September 2009 an enormous plume of dust from the deserts of central Australia arrived over Sydney after travelling east. It is estimated to have contained 16 million tonnes of material and it measured 500 km in width and 1000 km in length. A severe hailstorm struck the city on 14 April 1999. Hailstones measuring up to 9 cm in diameter caused damage to 40,000 vehicles and accrued insurance losses of over $1.5 billion.

Numerous maximum temperature records were broken in Sydney during the first decade of the 2000s. The summers from 2002 to 2005 were the warmest in Sydney since 1859 when record-keeping began. 2010 was the eighteenth consecutive year with above average maximum temperatures. 2004 was the warmest year on record until it was exceeded by the 2005 record. The spring of 2002 and the winter of 2005 were both the warmest on record. Temperature records were also broken in April 2005, March 2006, and September 2006.