Adelaide has mildest January in more than 10 years: weather bureau
Adelaide has recorded its mildest January in over a decade, despite a sweltering start to the month.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the average top temperature for the city was 28.9 degrees Celsius, about half a degree cooler than the long-term figure and almost four degrees cooler than January 2014.
The hottest temperature so far this year is 44.1C, which coincided with the start of the Adelaide Hills bushfire on January 2.
Authorities issued health alerts at the start of the month because of the anticipated heatwave, but the summer has so far seen only one other day above 40C, helping to make January's average maximum the coolest since 2004.
Senior forecaster Matt Collopy said a mild end to the month had helped to drag the average down.
"The first seven days were very hot," he said.
"We had 37C on the first of January, we had a 44.1-degree day on the second of January and then a string of high-30s days right through until the seventh of January, when we had another 42.2C maximum.
"Since the seventh, there have only been four days over 30C. The remainder of the days in January have been sitting around the mid-20s."
Mr Collopy said the cooler temperatures had been caused by a high pressure system sitting over the Great Australian Bight, which had led to much warmer weather in Perth.
"We can contrast Adelaide to Perth," he said.
"With the high pressure system in that position, Perth is in an east-to-north-easterly airstream which comes off the land and Perth has been very hot for the month of January, where we have been a bit below average.
"In 2014, in the middle part of January we had a run of five days over 42C. I'm thankful we didn't have those really hot temperatures this year."
The bureau said a full monthly summary for locations across South Australia was still being compiled.
