Extreme weather depends on where you are; what is extreme for us in the UK might be normal for somewhere in Australia.
Australia
UK
Temperature
- Warmer than the UK, summers are around 10°C warmer than the UK.
- In Darwin (northern Australia), the average maximum summer temperature is around 33°C. Anything over 40°C is considered extremely hot.
- Cooler than Australia
- In London, the average maximum summer temperature is around 23°C. Anything above 30°C is considered extremely hot.
Precipitation
- Lower precipitation than the UK
- Average annual rainfall is around 465mm
- Extremely wet years have over 550mm of rain
- Extremely dry years have less than 360mm of rainfall
- Higher precipitation than Australia
- Average annual rainfall is around 1150mm
- Extremely wet years have over 1210mm
- Extremely dry years have less than 950mm
Wind
- Australia has stronger extreme winds than the UK
- Affected by tropical cyclones which have winds of over 118km/h
- Strongest wind recorded was 400km/h on Barrow Island (off north-west coast Australia during Cyclone Olivia in 1996)
- Gales over 62km/h are rare, most places in the UK only have a few days of gales each year
- Strongest ever sea-level wind was over 220km/h, recorded in Fraserbugh, Scotland in 1989