Tasmania recorded its warmest August daytime temperatures on record last month, according to Bureau of Meteorology figures released on September 1.
The state’s area-averaged mean maximum temperature was 12.4 degrees, 1.89 degrees above the 1961-1990 average and the highest for any August since records began in 1910.
Nights were also warm. The area-averaged mean minimum was 4.4 degrees, the fifth-warmest August on record, while the overall mean of 8.4 degrees ranked third.
Rainfall went the other way. Tasmania’s area-averaged total was 82.6mm, 44% below average and the seventh-driest August since 1900.
It was the state’s driest August since 1982.
17 sites set records for their highest August mean maximum temperature. Nine of those had set their previous record in 2024.
Among them was larapuna/Eddystone Point, which has 116 years of data. Its mean maximum reached 16.4 degrees against an August average of 13.6 degrees.
Launceston (Ti Tree Bend) hit 15.9 degrees, Wynyard Airport 14.8 degrees and Devonport Airport 14.7 degrees.
Liawenee, in the Central Highlands, also set a record at nine degrees.
Six sites recorded their hottest August day on record, including St Helens Aerodrome at 23.1 degrees. Five of those fell on August 29 and 30.
The highest reading in the state was 23.7 degrees at Swansea on August 30.
In Hobart, the Ellerslie Road station recorded a mean daily maximum of 15.6 degrees, 2.4 degrees above the long-term average of 13.2 degrees.
The bureau says that is the city’s highest August mean maximum in more than 40 years, with the last higher figure on its records in 1982.
Hobart’s warmest day was 20.7 degrees on August 30 and its coolest was 8.2 degrees on August 4. Rainfall totalled 26mm, less than half the 54mm average.
Bushy Park recorded its highest August mean maximum since 1949.
Rain was below average across most of the state. Swansea recorded 7.6mm or 21% of its average, its lowest August total on record.
Friendly Beaches was the only site in the bureau’s table to finish above average, at 107%.
Cold conditions still featured late in the month. Liawenee dropped to minus 6.6 degrees on August 27, the state’s lowest reading and Mount Wellington reached a top of 0.1 degrees on August 22.
The strongest wind gust was 124km/h at Maatsuyker Island Lighthouse on August 13.
The bureau says the summary is based on information available on September 1 and the data is provisional.
