Climate in Australia
From our northern tropics, through vast inland deserts, to the temperate south – Australia is home to a variety of climates.
Weather, climate and seasons
Weather refers to meteorological conditions experienced or forecast over a short period – from hour to hour, or day to day. Temperature, humidity, rain, wind, sunshine and more.
Climate refers to the same conditions over a much longer period. This can be from a few weeks to millions of years. The conditions are often expressed as averages, trends and variability.
Seasons divide the year into periods of similar climate and weather. The number of seasons and their length can vary across Australia. They can be defined in different ways:
- First Australian communities identify a wide variety of seasons. This reflects a deep understanding of the environment. Learn more about Indigenous weather knowledge.
- In southern Australia we talk about 4 seasons – summer, autumn, winter and spring. We use calendar months to define these seasons – for example, autumn runs from 1 March to 31 May. This differs from some parts of the northern hemisphere, where the same seasons start on the equinox or solstice.
- In northern Australia, there are distinct dry and wet seasons. We define the northern Australian wet season as running from 1 October to 30 April. The dry season runs from 1 May to 30 September.
In this section, explore:
- Australia's climate zones
- powerful influences that affect our climate, including El Niño and La Niña, the Indian Ocean Dipole and other climate drivers
- how we forecast climate using climate models
- climate change, its influence on Australia's weather and what it means for the future.
Australia's official climate records and long range forecasts
We're the custodians of Australia's climate data. We monitor and record the nation's climate. We also provide long-range forecasts for weeks, months and seasons on our current website.
With CSIRO, we produce the State of the Climate report every 2 years. It helps Australians better plan and adapt for our changing environment.
Video: State of the Climate 2024 summary
Our climate has continued to change in the last two years, impacting us now and into the future. Across the world, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are continuing to increase and globally, 2023 was the warmest year on record. Australia is also continuing to warm in line with global trends. The warming has led to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events.
2023 was one of Australia's largest bushfire seasons in terms of area burned due to increased fuel loads from high rainfall in 2022 and early 2023 in northern areas. Across large parts of Australia there's been an increase in extreme fire weather and in the length of the fire season there has been a shift towards drier conditions across the south with more frequent years of below average rainfall.
In contrast, northern Australia has been wetter than average over the last 30 years. The intensity of heavy rainfall events is increasing as our climate warms. Oceans around Australia are warming and becoming more acidic, with changes happening faster in recent decades. This warming has led to more frequent marine heatwaves and permanent impacts on the health of our marine ecosystems.
The risk of coastal inundation and damage to infrastructure and communities is increasing with our rising sea levels. With ongoing changes in our weather and climate. Australia must plan for and adapt to the changing nature of climate risk now for future generations. To read the full report, visit our websites.