Australia is well known as a country with beautiful weather and warm climate. But this doesn't mean that the sun is always shining. Southern parts of Australia get cold during the winter, and northern Australia gets flooded by monsoonal rains during the summer, which is also the season for tropical cyclones. On this page you can read about Australia climate, weather in Australia and find out about during which seasons it is best to visit different parts of Australia.
Australia Climate is Generally Hot By world's standards, Australia is a very warm country. Its coldest parts lie at 40° lattitudes, where in the Northern Hemisphere we have Washington D.C. in the US, Beijing in China, central Spain, southern Italy and northern Greece in Europe – places generally considered not too cold. At 40° in Australia we have Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania, places "freezing" to Australians who only visit this corner of the country summer time. At 30°, where in Northern Hemisphere are Morocco, Egypt, Mexico and Florida – places people travel to because they want to escape cold - in Australia we have areas not far north from Perth and Sydney – places still relatively cool to Australian standards, where during the winter you wear a jacket. Northern parts of Australia lie at 20° latitudes where in Northern Hemisphere you’d be in Sahara Desert! Australians are spoiled with a wonderfully warm weather. Many of them haven’t ever seen snow. They think of Europe as a cold place, and they can spend most of their time outdoors all year around.
Australia Climate Can Exceptionally Be Cold But, Australia is a big country and local factors affect climate. Australia can exceptionally be a little colder than I just promised - in the ACT, southern New South Wales and Victoria's high country, because of the high altitudes combined with the high-degree latitudes. Distance from the ocean also affects climate. Because water has a capacity to hold temperature longer than the air, it keeps winters mild and summers cool on the coastal areas of Australia, while the climate in the interior can get extremely hot during days and summers, and fairly cold during nights and winters.
Australia Climate: When to Go Where Australia can be divided into several climatic regions, but all you need to know for your travels is that very roughly – summer (December – February) is the best time to travel in southern Australia, and winter (June – August) is the best time to travel in northern Australia. Winter can get cold (by Australian standards) in southern parts of the country, and summer in northern Australia does not only get stinking hot but also wet and humid as the monsoonal rains come through, flood cane fields and make the roads impassable. Northern Australia, being tropical, does not have the usual four seasons as we’re used to in temperate climates - it has two seasons: The Wet and The Dry. The Dry (June – August) is comfortably warm and sunny with 25-30°C while the temperatures rise above 40°C before the rains come along and then it is so wet that mould starts literally growing on your shoes and travel bags.
Courtesy of Tourism Northern Territory
Australia Climate: The Wet Season in the North To sum it all up – Australia climate is nice for travelling all year around – just choose which parts to see when. And even if you go to the wrong part during the wrong season, it’s not a disaster – people still live their normal lives there and in fact, traveller numbers are down and you have no trouble to find a hotel room, but the weather can just get a bit uncomfortable. I did a trip through the tropical north during the Wet season on purpose because I wanted to see how bad it was. The electrical storms around Darwin were pretty scary, the insect plagues in Kimberleys kept us inside our campervan for a night, all the other nights we spent hours in the pools of caravan parks to escape the burning heat, and the fear of tropical cyclones was always there, but other than that, there were no problems.
Australian Cyclones: Tropical Cyclone Larry It is not likely that you will come across a tropical cyclone (hurricane) on your travels - they happen relatively seldom. But if you are in northern Australia between November and March, it is not impossible. In tropics, disasters such as cyclones and floods can strike quickly and with little warning. In March 2006 when Cyclone Larry came, we only heard about it in Sunday afternoon, by early hours on Monday, the streets looked as if a nuclear bomb had blown the place up. Houses with no roofs, trees laying across the roads, and streets flooded.
How to Prepare for Australian Cyclones With its 290km/h winds, the tropical cyclone Larry was stronger than Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005 and killed thousands of people. It was only good luck and good preparation that no-one was killed in Cyclone Larry. What you can do to stay safe: check Australian Bureau of Meteorology website for current cyclones in Australia, it is constantly updated. Listen to the local radio - they'll have cyclone warnings that interrupt all programs starting 48 hours before the cyclone is expected. A cyclone can turn off its predicted path any time so it's very hard to know for sure in which town along the coast it will finally hit. That's why a large area will get warnings.
Many people who survived the Tropical Cyclone Larry in Innisfail, say if they had known how scary it was, they would have evacuated. If you get warnings early enough, you may want to leave the coast - go inland, cyclones die off once they leave the ocean. If not, stay inside, in a room with no windows (bathroom) and listen to a battery-powered radio for cyclone updates - electicity and phone lines will be gone.
NOTE: This website is written in British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all correct in the language used in Australia.
