Gove Airport is a weather station located 52 m above sea level, 11 km from Nhulunbuy. Its records go back to 1945: 41 years of temperature are available up to 2023, along with rainfall and a comparison with two reference normals. Closed series: the records of this station end in 2023. Over 1991–2020 the annual mean temperature there is 26.7 °C; the 1961–1990 period is not documented well enough to compare. The warmest year of the series is 2016 (28.0 °C) and the coldest 1972 (25.9 °C). The last complete year, 2022, ranks 3 out of 41, from warmest to coldest. Over 1961–2023, the annual mean temperature changes by +0.18 °C per decade. The station ranks 133 out of 227 stations, from the fastest rise to the slowest.
Annual mean temperature since 1945
The first ten years of the series (1967–1990) average 26.5 °C; the last ten (2012–2022) average 27.1 °C, a difference of +0.7 °C. Of the ten warmest years in the series, 8 fall after 1999. The warmest is 2016 (28.0 °C). The ten-year running mean peaks at 27.2 °C (2022) and bottoms out at 26.5 °C (1997).
Annual rainfall since 1945
On average 1454 mm of rain falls per year over the 43 documented years. The wettest year, 1999, received 2572 mm; the driest, 2002, only 654 mm, which is 3.9 times less. Over 1991–2020, March is on average the wettest month (286 mm) and August the driest (6 mm). Between 2002 and 2023, 9 years out of 20 exceeded the series average.
Records at Gove Airport
- Warmest year: 28.0 °C, in 2016
- Coldest year: 25.9 °C, in 1972
- Driest year: 654 mm, in 2002
- Wettest year: 2572 mm, in 1999
- Warmest month: 30.3 °C, in December 2018
- Coldest month: 22.5 °C, in August 1990
- Wettest month: 1080 mm, in April 1999
- Hottest day: 38.7 °C, on 4 December 2018
- Coldest day: 11.1 °C, on 11 August 1986
- Heaviest rain in one day: 437.0 mm, on 22 April 1999
2.1 °C separate the warmest year of the series from the coldest. Between the hottest and the coldest day on record, the range reaches 27.6 °C.
Temperature trend over 1961–2023
The regression line of annual mean temperature changes by +0.18 °C per decade between 1961 and 2023, about +1.1 °C over the whole period. That is slower than the median of the 227 stations (+0.19 °C per decade), by 0.01 °C per decade: the station ranks 133 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 Gove 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 Gove Airport?
Over 1991–2020, the annual mean temperature at Gove Airport is 26.7 °C.
What is the warmest year ever measured at Gove Airport?
Since records began in 1945, the warmest year at Gove Airport is 2016, at 28.0 °C on average. The coldest is 1972 (25.9 °C).
Is the climate at Gove Airport getting warmer?
Yes: at Gove Airport, the annual mean temperature rises by 0.18 °C per decade between 1961 and 2023, +1.1 °C in total. 8 of the 10 warmest years in the series fall after 1999.
Towns near this station
Neighbouring stations