Seasonal climate summary southern hemisphere (winter 2005): neutral conditions in the tropical Pacific and a wet and warm winter across Australia

Southern hemisphere circulation patterns and associated anomalies are reviewed for the austral winter (June – August) 2005. Emphasis is given to the Pacific Basin climate indicators and Australian rainfall and temperature patterns. After a very dry start to the year, winter rainfall was above normal. In June, the Australian area-averaged rainfall was 44.5 mm (91 per cent above normal), the sixth-highest June rainfall on record and the highest since 1951. Overall, Australian winter rainfall was the highest since the 1998 La Niña event. Despite increased rainfall and hence cloudiness, maximum temperatures continued to be above average over virtually the entire continent. Large areas of eastern, northern and central Australia experienced minimum temperatures between 1°C and 3°C warmer than average during winter with peak anomalies of between +3°C and +4°C over parts of central Queensland. Following neutral conditions during autumn, both atmospheric and oceanic ENSO indicators were generally neutral throughout the winter.