Mount Isa Mine is a weather station located 381 m above sea level, 2 km from Healy. Its records go back to 1932: 26 years of temperature are available up to 2024, along with rainfall and a comparison with two reference normals. Over the whole series (26 years) the annual mean temperature there is 25.4 °C; the 1961–1990 and 1991–2020 reference periods are not documented well enough for a comparison. The warmest year of the series is 1988 (27.1 °C) and the coldest 1974 (23.9 °C). The last complete year, 1991, ranks 6 out of 26, from warmest to coldest. Over 1961–2024, the annual mean temperature changes by +0.45 °C per decade. The station ranks 2 out of 227 stations, from the fastest rise to the slowest.
Annual mean temperature since 1932
The first ten years of the series (1965–1975) average 25.2 °C; the last ten (1982–1991) average 26.0 °C, a difference of +0.8 °C. The warmest years of the series all date from before 2000; the warmest is 1988 (27.1 °C). The ten-year running mean peaks at 26.0 °C (1991) and bottoms out at 24.9 °C (1979).
Annual rainfall since 1932
On average 429 mm of rain falls per year over the 88 documented years. The wettest year, 2011, received 1180 mm; the driest, 1970, only 105 mm, which is 11.2 times less. The 1991–2020 normal (479 mm per year) is 89 mm (22.8 %) above the 1961–1990 one (390 mm). Over 1991–2020, January is on average the wettest month (121 mm) and August the driest (2 mm). Between 2004 and 2024, 12 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 | 30.8 °C | – | – | 97 mm | 121 mm | +24 mm |
| February | 30.0 °C | – | – | 73 mm | 109 mm | +36 mm |
| March | 28.5 °C | – | – | 67 mm | 65 mm | −2 mm |
| April | 25.9 °C | – | – | 17 mm | 12 mm | −5 mm |
| May | 21.8 °C | – | – | 14 mm | 7 mm | −7 mm |
| June | 18.4 °C | – | – | 4 mm | 9 mm | +5 mm |
| July | 17.8 °C | – | – | 8 mm | 3 mm | −5 mm |
| August | 20.2 °C | – | – | 4 mm | 2 mm | −2 mm |
| September | 23.7 °C | – | – | 7 mm | 10 mm | +3 mm |
| October | 27.5 °C | – | – | 18 mm | 17 mm | −1 mm |
| November | 29.9 °C | – | – | 25 mm | 43 mm | +18 mm |
| December | 30.8 °C | – | – | 56 mm | 81 mm | +25 mm |
For rainfall, the largest difference is in February (+36 mm) and the smallest in May (−7 mm).
Records at Mount Isa Mine
- Warmest year: 27.1 °C, in 1988
- Coldest year: 23.9 °C, in 1974
- Driest year: 105 mm, in 1970
- Wettest year: 1180 mm, in 2011
- Warmest month: 34.1 °C, in February 1983
- Coldest month: 15.8 °C, in June 1971
- Wettest month: 484 mm, in January 2009
- Hottest day: 45.6 °C, on 29 January 1990
- Coldest day: −2.2 °C, on 8 July 2014
- Heaviest rain in one day: 196.2 mm, on 15 January 2004
3.2 °C separate the warmest year of the series from the coldest. Between the hottest and the coldest day on record, the range reaches 47.8 °C.
Temperature trend over 1961–2024
The regression line of annual mean temperature changes by +0.45 °C per decade between 1961 and 2024, about +2.8 °C over the whole period. That is faster than the median of the 227 stations (+0.19 °C per decade), by 0.26 °C per decade: the station ranks 2 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 Mount Isa Mine 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 Mount Isa Mine?
Over the whole series (26 years), the annual mean temperature at Mount Isa Mine is 25.4 °C.
What is the warmest year ever measured at Mount Isa Mine?
Since records began in 1932, the warmest year at Mount Isa Mine is 1988, at 27.1 °C on average. The coldest is 1974 (23.9 °C).
Is the climate at Mount Isa Mine getting warmer?
Yes: at Mount Isa Mine, the annual mean temperature rises by 0.45 °C per decade between 1961 and 2024, +2.8 °C in total.
Towns near this station
Neighbouring stations