Sydney has just reached 30ºC for the first time in 11 months, ending its second longest run of days below 30ºC on record.
The temperature at Sydney’s Observatory Hill weather station, located near the southern end of the Harbour Bridge, surpassed 30ºC at 2:16pm on Wednesday.
While 30ºC days are not uncommon in Sydney during summer, days this hot have been scarce during the past year thanks to La Niña, abnormally prevalent easterly winds, abundant cloud and prolific rain.
Prior to today, Sydney’s last day above 30ºC was on February 21, 2022, meaning the city just had 331 days between temperatures over 30ºC.
This is the city’s second longest gap between 30ºC days in records dating back to 1859. The only longer period between 30ºC days lasted for 340 days, between December 31, 1882, and December 6, 1883.
This prolonged and unusual absence of hot days in Sydney also saw the city fail to reach 32ºC at all in 2022, which was a new record. This coincided with Sydney’s wettest year on record, with the city amassing 2530 mm in 2022 to beat the previous record of 2194 mm in 1950.
Considering Sydney’s near-record run of days below 30ºC in the broader context of climate change makes it an even more impressive feat for the city. Observations from Observatory Hill show that the city’s mean annual maximum temperature has increased by around 1ºC between 1910 and 2021.
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