Climate

With values of up to 3500 sunny hours per year - thus 9,6 hours per day - Australia seems to be the perfect vacation country the first view. That is right too, but you need to be at the right place in time. Thus you should take enough time to deal with the climate topic.

First it has to be considered, that in Australia the seasons are the other way around. That is: spring from September until November, summer from December until February, fall from March until May and winter from June until August.

Due to its size Australia shows several different climates. It can be divided into the tropics, the Red Centre and the temperate zone.

Temperatures

Precipitation

The Tropics

are in the north of Australia, above of the Tropic of Capricorn. Here you can only differentiate between two seasons: The rainy season and the dry season.

During the rainy season (mostly from November til April, but can vary) you must reckon with severe thunderstorms lasting for for days, street floodings and cyclones. Of course it does not rain uninterruptedly, but the sultry weather as well is probably not that ideal for biking, and in addition you can not enjoy the beautiful sea beaches for cooling mostly because of jellyfish danger.

During the dry season (May until October) it is hot and arid. Only seldom a shadow-donating cloud finds its way in the tropical area.

Red Centre

The Red Centre (name because of the ore-bearing, red-gleaming desert rock) has a precipitation of about 200 mm per year. That's not a hell of a lot! Especially in the Australian summer it is extremely hot in this area. Attention should be paid to the fact that during the night it cools down severely - you will need a warm sleeping bag for this region.

Temperate zone

The rest of Australia belongs to the temperate zone. The eastern coast it quite rich on rainfall because of the mountains. The area around Tully should be noted, because there a annual precipitation of more than 7000 milimetres was measured already!!

The highest measured temperature in Australia is 53,1 degrees Celsius. This record is held by Cloncurry (QL) and Marble Bar. There it had more than 38 degrees on 160 consecutive days !

Sometimes even the plastic roadside markers bend because of the heat

Most favorable travel times

At the Commonwealth Bureau Of Meteorology you can find all worth knowing about Australia's climate, the current weather as well as weather forecasts for the individual areas and many other interesting facts about meteorology.