Annual climate summary 1998: Australia’s warmest year on record

A high-quality dataset developed to monitor long-term temperature trends in Australia has been updated. The annual mean time-series indicates that in 1998 Australia recorded its highest ever annual mean temperature since the start of the high-quality record in 1910. The largest contribution to the record temperature came from much higher than usual minimum temperatures throughout the northern half of the continent. High-quality rainfall and cloud cover datasets have also been updated. Greater than average cloud cover during 1998 contributed to milder overnight temperatures and generally wetter than average conditions through most of the country. The result of a warm, wet and cloudy year during 1998 is unusual in the instrumental record for Australia as studies of interannual climate variations indicate that mean temperature is generally out of phase with both rainfall and cloud cover. However, these apparent inconsistencies support the suggestion made by previous studies that the relationship between Australian temperature and rainfall changed abruptly during the early 1970s.