Friday, January 1, 2016

Year in Review: 2015

It's New Year's Day, a good time to review the weather we experienced in Victoria during 2015.



The most significant feature of the weather in 2015 was the warmth.  2015 was the warmest year on record at Victoria Gonzales, with the recording-keeping going back over 100 years to 1898.  The mean annual temperature was 11.7 degrees compared with the 1981-2010 average of 10.6 degrees.  The old record was 11.5 degrees in 2004.  Ten of the months during 2015 were warmer than normal - only September and November were below average.

Some months also broke temperature records.  February 2015 was by far the warmest February on record at Victoria Gonzales, with a mean temperature of 8.9 degrees and an average daily max/min of 11.2 / 6.6.  February was 2.4 degrees above the average of 6.5 and smashed the old record of 8.2 degrees by a wide margin.  In addition, June 2015 tied with June 2003 as the warmest on record, with a mean temperature of 16.1 degrees and an average daily max/min of 20.7 / 11.5.  Average mean temperature for June at Victoria Gonzales is 14.5.  The warmest month of the year was July, with a mean temperature of 17.6 degrees.  That makes it the third warmest July on record at Victoria Gonzales, after July 2004 (17.8) and July 1958 (17.7).  July 2015 also tied with August 1997 as the fourth warmest month on record at Victoria Gonzales.

Victoria also experienced its warmest summer on record in 2015, with a mean temperature of 16.9 degrees for June, July, and August combined compared with a normal summer temperature of 15.6 degrees.  The old record was 16.8 degrees in 2004.

The warmest temperature of the year was 31.3 degrees on July 30.  Despite 2015 being such a warm year on average, that date was the only time the temperature topped 30 degrees, compared with 5 days in 2004.  So 2015 was right on the average for Victoria Gonzales of 1 day with temperatures above 30.  We did get more than our usual number of days with temperatures above 25 degrees - 12 days compared with the average of 8.6 days.  The coldest temperature was -0.9 degrees reached on the very last day of the year - December 31.  There were just 4 days in 2015 when the overnight temperature dropped below freezing, compared with the normal 11 days.

2015 will also be remembered for the dry late spring and summer.  While summer drought is not in the least unusual in Victoria, this year was exceptional, particularly in the spring and early summer.  May 2015 was the driest on record at Victoria Gonzales, with just 1.8 mm of rain.  During the four month period from April 1 to July 31, just 24.6 mm of rain fell in Victoria compared with the usual 92.7 mm.  That makes it the driest April to July period on record in Victoria.

Despite this dry spell, above average rainfall during most of the rest of the year - especially during the last three months of the year - resulted in a wetter than average year with 735 mm compared with the average 641 mm.

Victoria recorded no snowfall during 2015.  This is the first calendar year since 1999 with absolutely  no snow.  Sometimes, Victoria will get a few snow flurries, even if it doesn't stick, but this year we didn't even get that.  With no snow falling,  Victoria continued its streak of winters with no snow accumulating on the ground.  The last time we saw at least 1 cm of snow on the ground was back in January 2012 - almost four years ago.

Victoria Gonzales Weather Summary for 2015
Month Max Min Average Rain Snow
° C ° C ° C mm cm
Jan 9.0 5.2 7.1 96.1            - 
Feb 11.2 6.6 8.9 82.8            - 
Mar 12.4 6.5 9.5 82.3            - 
Apr 13.6 6.5 10.1 10.8            - 
May 17.1 9.2 13.2 1.8            - 
Jun 20.7 11.5 16.1 3.8            - 
Jul 22.0 13.0 17.6 8.2            - 
Aug 21.1 12.6 16.9 26.5            - 
Sep 17.8 10.6 14.2 38.6            - 
Oct 15.5 10.0 12.8 108.4            - 
Nov 9.4 4.6 7.0 155.9            - 
Dec 8.1 4.3 6.2 120.2            - 
Annual 14.8 8.4 11.7 735.4            - 

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