LAST year was a warm and wet year for most of Australia, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s official record of Australia’s climate and notable weather events for 2022.
Australia’s national mean temperature was 0.50 °C warmer than the 1961-1990 average, making 2022 the 22nd-warmest year on record (equal with 2006) since national temperature records began in 1910.
The Annual Climate Statement for 2022 includes a full analysis and description of last year’s rainfall, temperature, water resources, climate influences and more.
Rainfall was very much above average for the south-eastern quarter of the mainland, where persistent rain resulted in huge flooding affecting large areas, multiple times during the year.
Spring in 2022 was the second-wettest on record for Australia, and the wettest on record for the Murray-Darling Basin, for New South Wales and for Victoria.
National rainfall was 26 per cent above the 1961-1990 annual average making 2022 the ninth-wettest year on record since 1900.
The high rainfall experienced across much of eastern Australia was consistent with a wet phase of natural climate variability for the region – namely a La Niña, a negative Indian Ocean Dipole in winter and spring, and a persistently positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode from mid-autumn.
The 2022-23 La Niña has been the third in a row. It is only the fourth time three La Niña events in a row have been observed in the bureau record since 1900 (others were 1954-57, 1973-76 and 1998-2001).
Rainfall was below average for western Tasmania, much of the north of the Northern Territory, and the far south-west of Western Australia.
Water storage levels have been high across much of Australia during 2022, although some storages were still low for parts of central coast Queensland, western Tasmania, south-east New South Wales and western Victoria.
Annual maximum temperatures were above average for most of northern Australia, Tasmania and parts of the west coast but below average for New South Wales, southern Queensland and parts of South Australia.
Annual minimum temperatures were above or very much above average for most of Australia.
The bureau’s official annual record of climate can be used by governments, businesses and communities to better understand the weather events that impacted them over the calendar year. More information is available in the Annual Climate Statement 2022 on the bureau’s website.
Further information about the impact of long-term climate trends is available in the State of the Climate 2022 released by the Bureau and CSIRO in November 2022.
