If you lived in Sydney in 2022, this news probably won’t surprise you. In data released by Observatory Hill this week, it has been revealed that Sydney city is very close to experiencing its longest spell of days under 30 degrees Celsius in 140 years.
Despite Sydney city getting some proper summery weather in the last two weeks (it was a Christmas miracle), Sydney city has undeniably been through the cold weather wars over the last little while. The soggy terrors of La Niña aside, a maximum temp of 26.6 degrees recorded on Tuesday, January 10 2023 marked the 332nd consecutive day in Sydney city that we didn’t crack a daily temperature hotter than 30 degrees. Gasp.
This has been an extremely rare year for our harbourside town when it comes to the weather. Not only was 2022 the wettest year in Sydney city’s recorded history, but now, it turns out, it was also one of the coldest, with us failing to clock a temperature above 30, apart from on February 21, 2022.
The Bureau of Meteorology classifies a ‘hot’ day in Sydney city as being 32 degrees and over, meaning that our classically steamy city hasn’t been officially ‘hot’ in almost 12 months. Bit sad, really.
Why has it been so chilly in Sydney city, you may ask? According to the ABC, it all comes down to the wind, with our most common winds this past year having been easterlies, opposed to our more usual westerlies. Sydney city has been hit with cool air currents blown off the Tasman Sea, rather than our more classic hot winds that normally surge from inland Australia.
Will it get hotter in Sydney city this summer? Time will only tell. It looks like we will get to 30 degrees mid-next week, but with more easterlies forecast to come through this February, it looks increasingly likely that we will break the all-time 1883 record of 339 consecutive days under 30 degrees.
Don’t put those jackets into storage just yet.