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Are you looking for the best Australian climate for your Outback experience? The question "What's the weather like on my Australian holiday destination?" is important, right?



Although Australians always hope for rain in the current drought condition, but they certainly understand that you don't want rain when you are out there :).

That's why I have researched information about the Australian weather for you. Because Australia is such a big country, there will be always a region with pleasant weather at any time of the year.

An overview about Australian seasons

The Australian facts page has a very quick guide to Australian climate zones. Extreme temperature records, the highest and lowest, are listed for each state on the page about the Australian states. But now I am going a wee bit into detail. The sequence of seasons is valid for all countries in the southern hemisphere.

• Summer is from December to February
• Autumn is from March to May
• Winter is from June to August, and finally,
• Spring is from September to November.

With Australia's vast dimensions, you can imagine that it is hard to pick a season that has ideal weather in each and every corner of the country. It often depends on the activities you're planning for your holiday trip.

One fact is for certain, Australia's weather is much dryer than in any other country of the world. Rainfall is rather unpredictable in most parts of the continent, except for the northern regions which are under influence of the tropical monsoons.

Regions north of the Tropic of Capricorn are known as the tropics. Towns along the tropic are Rockhampton on the Queensland coast and Alice Springs in central Australia. On the Western Australian coast the marker is half way between Carnavon and Exmouth.

The monument in the photo marks the Tropic of Capricorn about 35 km north of Alice Springs.

The weather in Australia's tropics has two different seasons, the dry and the wet. The dry season is from May to October in the Australian winter months. However, winter in the tropics is not as cold as in the southern states. Average temperatures during the day are in the low 20s, but the nights can be rather cold.

At the end of the dry season humidity builds up, it is getting hot and sticky. It can take a few weeks until the first rain and thunderstorms open the wet season. It doesn't rain all day long during the wet, but the rainfall is usually heavy and causes flooding. The wet is also the time when cyclones occur along Australia's northern coastlines. However, when the parched land finally gets some rain, it is amazing to see the wildflowers emerge from the red sand. That's just awesome.

The central and southern parts of Western Australia, the southern Northern Territory, the central and northern parts of South Australia, as well as the far west of Queensland and New South Wales belong to Australia's dry and desert regions.

This map about the Australian climate classification certainly gives you a better overview of the climate zones in Australia than my descriptions.

Anyway, the central parts of Australia have hot summers with temperatures of 40°C and more during the day, while the average day time temps in winter are around 20°C. At night temperatures vary from 20°C in summer to freezing zero in winter. Clear blue skies and low humidity make the hot days tolerable.

The arid and semi-arid areas of inland Australia receive between 100 and 300 mm rain per year, but this is rather unpredictable. The northern parts get perhaps a little more rain, depending how far south the monsoon clouds make their way. All in all, you'll never know when the rain comes in these driest parts of Australia.

Australia's temperate regions are in the south and south eastern parts of the continent. They include Tasmania and the coastal areas of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The weather in the temperate regions has distinctive seasons.

Summers are warm with average temperatures around 30°C, and sometimes they have heat waves that can last for weeks.

Winters are not as cold as in most European countries. Apart from the mountainous areas of the southern Great Dividing Range, you'll hardly ever see snow in the temperate regions. The snowfields in New South Wales and Victoria receive regular snow in winter, and they are considered bigger than those in Switzerland.

The weather in the temperate regions is rather changeable. A southerly change with cold winds on the coastlines can make you shiver even in summer.

Australia's hot and dry climate contributes to huge bushfires. The danger for bush fires increases with low humidity, strong winds and high temperatures. Australian native plants, especially eucalyptus trees and bushes burn very easily in these dry conditions.

Please be very careful with any open fire, even your cigarettes on days of high fire danger. During the summer months most states have fire bans, that means you are not allowed to use you camping stove outside, let alone have a camp fire going. You'll get information about the state of fire danger from local newspapers and in the news. You'll also see these warning signs along the main highways. Please obey these rules, and don't be the fool who causes a bush fire.

There's a long history of severe bush fires in Australia. When the fires get out of control and threaten the capital cities, you'll certainly get to see the news around the world. In February 1983 more than 100 bush fires damaged more than one million hectares of bushland in South Australia and Victoria. 76 people died in the fires. This series of fires are known as the "Ash Wednesday", a sad event caused by the severe Australian climate.

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