Katoomba (Murri St) is a weather station located 1015 m above sea level, 1 km from Katoomba. Its records go back to 1886: 49 years of temperature are available up to 2017, along with rainfall and a comparison with two reference normals. Closed series: the records of this station end in 2017. Over 1991–2020 the annual mean temperature there is 12.9 °C, clearly higher than over 1961–1990 (12.1 °C): a difference of 0.8 °C. The warmest year of the series is 2016 (14.6 °C) and the coldest 1976 (11.3 °C). The last complete year, 2016, ranks 1 out of 49, from warmest to coldest. Over 1961–2017, the annual mean temperature changes by +0.26 °C per decade. The station ranks 40 out of 227 stations, from the fastest rise to the slowest.
Annual mean temperature since 1886
The first ten years of the series (1957–1966) average 12.6 °C; the last ten (2006–2016) average 13.3 °C, a difference of +0.8 °C. Of the ten warmest years in the series, 7 fall after 1999. The warmest is 2016 (14.6 °C). The ten-year running mean peaks at 13.4 °C (2016) and bottoms out at 11.9 °C (1990).
Annual rainfall since 1886
On average 1393 mm of rain falls per year over the 125 documented years. The wettest year, 1950, received 2783 mm; the driest, 1944, only 618 mm, which is 4.5 times less. The 1991–2020 normal (1307 mm per year) is 148 mm (10.2 %) below the 1961–1990 one (1455 mm). Over 1991–2020, February is on average the wettest month (194 mm) and July the driest (53 mm). Between 1998 and 2017, 9 years out of 20 exceeded the series average.
Monthly normals: 1961–1990 against 1991–2020
The table compares, month by month, the mean temperature and the rainfall total of two thirty-year reference periods. The difference column shows what the recent period changes compared with the earlier one.
| Month | Temp. 1961–1990 | Temp. 1991–2020 | Difference | Rain 1961–1990 | Rain 1991–2020 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 17.6 °C | 18.8 °C | +1.2 °C | 161 mm | 148 mm | −13 mm |
| February | 17.3 °C | 18.1 °C | +0.8 °C | 147 mm | 194 mm | +47 mm |
| March | 15.7 °C | 16.1 °C | +0.4 °C | 190 mm | 166 mm | −24 mm |
| April | 12.6 °C | 13.3 °C | +0.7 °C | 158 mm | 90 mm | −68 mm |
| May | 9.6 °C | 10.2 °C | +0.6 °C | 120 mm | 84 mm | −36 mm |
| June | 6.6 °C | 7.5 °C | +0.9 °C | 109 mm | 110 mm | +1 mm |
| July | 5.6 °C | 6.6 °C | +1.0 °C | 61 mm | 53 mm | −8 mm |
| August | 6.9 °C | 7.8 °C | +0.9 °C | 96 mm | 66 mm | −30 mm |
| September | 9.4 °C | 10.7 °C | +1.3 °C | 73 mm | 64 mm | −9 mm |
| October | 12.2 °C | 13.1 °C | +0.9 °C | 111 mm | 86 mm | −25 mm |
| November | 14.6 °C | 15.2 °C | +0.6 °C | 115 mm | 131 mm | +16 mm |
| December | 16.8 °C | 17.2 °C | +0.4 °C | 114 mm | 115 mm | +1 mm |
The largest temperature change is in September (+1.3 °C) and the smallest in December (+0.4 °C); over the year the mean difference is +0.8 °C, and 12 months out of twelve are warmer than before. For rainfall, the largest difference is in February (+47 mm) and the smallest in April (−68 mm).
Records at Katoomba (Murri St)
- Warmest year: 14.6 °C, in 2016
- Coldest year: 11.3 °C, in 1976
- Driest year: 618 mm, in 1944
- Wettest year: 2783 mm, in 1950
- Warmest month: 21.3 °C, in January 2017
- Coldest month: 4.7 °C, in July 1963
- Wettest month: 788 mm, in February 1956
- Hottest day: 39.8 °C, on 4 January 2020
- Coldest day: −5.6 °C, on 2 August 1976
- Heaviest rain in one day: 285.0 mm, on 20 March 1978
3.3 °C separate the warmest year of the series from the coldest. Between the hottest and the coldest day on record, the range reaches 45.4 °C.
Temperature trend over 1961–2017
The regression line of annual mean temperature changes by +0.26 °C per decade between 1961 and 2017, about +1.5 °C over the whole period. That is faster than the median of the 227 stations (+0.19 °C per decade), by 0.07 °C per decade: the station ranks 40 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 Katoomba (Murri St) 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 Katoomba (Murri St)?
Over 1991–2020, the annual mean temperature at Katoomba (Murri St) is 12.9 °C. It was 12.1 °C over 1961–1990, a difference of +0.8 °C.
What is the warmest year ever measured at Katoomba (Murri St)?
Since records began in 1886, the warmest year at Katoomba (Murri St) is 2016, at 14.6 °C on average. The coldest is 1976 (11.3 °C).
Is the climate at Katoomba (Murri St) getting warmer?
Yes: at Katoomba (Murri St), the annual mean temperature rises by 0.26 °C per decade between 1961 and 2017, +1.5 °C in total. 7 of the 10 warmest years in the series fall after 1999.
Towns near this station
Neighbouring stations