Essendon Airport is a weather station located 78 m above sea level, 5 km from Fawkner. Its records go back to 1930: 52 years of temperature are available up to 2025, along with rainfall and a comparison with two reference normals. Over the whole series (52 years) the annual mean temperature there is 14.7 °C; the 1961–1990 and 1991–2020 reference periods are not documented well enough for a comparison. The warmest year of the series is 2024 (16.1 °C) and the coldest 1949 (13.3 °C). The last complete year, 2025, ranks 2 out of 52, from warmest to coldest. Over 1961–2025, the annual mean temperature changes by +0.24 °C per decade. The station ranks 62 out of 227 stations, from the fastest rise to the slowest.
Annual mean temperature since 1930
The first ten years of the series (1940–1949) average 14.1 °C; the last ten (2016–2025) average 15.7 °C, a difference of +1.6 °C. All of the 10 warmest years in the series fall after 1999; the warmest is 2024 (16.1 °C). The ten-year running mean peaks at 15.7 °C (2025) and bottoms out at 13.9 °C (1958).
Annual rainfall since 1930
On average 579 mm of rain falls per year over the 68 documented years. The wettest year, 1974, received 813 mm; the driest, 1938, only 350 mm, which is 2.3 times less. Over 1961–1990, October is on average the wettest month (62 mm) and June the driest (36 mm). Between 2006 and 2025, 8 years out of 20 exceeded the series average.
Records at Essendon Airport
- Warmest year: 16.1 °C, in 2024
- Coldest year: 13.3 °C, in 1949
- Driest year: 350 mm, in 1938
- Wettest year: 813 mm, in 1974
- Warmest month: 23.7 °C, in January 2022
- Coldest month: 7.6 °C, in July 1939
- Wettest month: 224 mm, in January 1963
- Hottest day: 47.3 °C, on 7 February 2009
- Coldest day: −3.3 °C, on 17 June 1969
- Heaviest rain in one day: 118.0 mm, on 3 February 2005
2.8 °C separate the warmest year of the series from the coldest. Between the hottest and the coldest day on record, the range reaches 50.6 °C.
Temperature trend over 1961–2025
The regression line of annual mean temperature changes by +0.24 °C per decade between 1961 and 2025, about +1.5 °C over the whole period. That is faster than the median of the 227 stations (+0.19 °C per decade), by 0.05 °C per decade: the station ranks 62 out of 227.
Data source and licence
Data source: Bureau of Meteorology (ACORN-SAT) and NOAA NCEI (GHCN-Daily) (dataset “ACORN-SAT v2 daily (homogenised) + GHCN-Daily”), licence CC BY 4.0; Public domain (NOAA NCEI). Last updated: 29 October 2026.
The data for Essendon Airport are shown as the source publishes them; this site does not correct them. A year is kept only if at least eleven months of measurements are available, and a normal is computed only with at least twenty years of data out of its thirty. Temperatures are rounded to 0.1 °C and rainfall to the millimetre. The station is one of 227 stations in Australia: the overview page lets you compare them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the annual mean temperature at Essendon Airport?
Over the whole series (52 years), the annual mean temperature at Essendon Airport is 14.7 °C.
What is the warmest year ever measured at Essendon Airport?
Since records began in 1930, the warmest year at Essendon Airport is 2024, at 16.1 °C on average. The coldest is 1949 (13.3 °C).
Is the climate at Essendon Airport getting warmer?
Yes: at Essendon Airport, the annual mean temperature rises by 0.24 °C per decade between 1961 and 2025, +1.5 °C in total. 10 of the 10 warmest years in the series fall after 1999.
Towns near this station
Neighbouring stations