Parkes (Macarthur Street) is a weather station located 324 m above sea level, 2 km from Parkes. Its records go back to 1890: 54 years of temperature are available up to 2011, along with rainfall and a comparison with two reference normals. Closed series: the records of this station end in 2011. Over 1991–2020 the annual mean temperature there is 17.4 °C, barely higher than over 1961–1990 (17.1 °C): a difference of 0.3 °C. The warmest year of the series is 2009 (18.6 °C) and the coldest 1992 (16.0 °C). The last complete year, 2011, ranks 24 out of 54, from warmest to coldest. Over 1961–2011, the annual mean temperature changes by +0.18 °C per decade. The station ranks 124 out of 227 stations, from the fastest rise to the slowest.
Annual mean temperature since 1890
The first ten years of the series (1957–1966) average 16.9 °C; the last ten (2002–2011) average 17.9 °C, a difference of +1.0 °C. Of the ten warmest years in the series, 5 fall after 1999. The warmest is 2009 (18.6 °C). The ten-year running mean peaks at 17.9 °C (2010) and bottoms out at 16.9 °C (1978).
Annual rainfall since 1890
On average 584 mm of rain falls per year over the 115 documented years. The wettest year, 1950, received 1207 mm; the driest, 1944, only 228 mm, which is 5.3 times less. The 1991–2020 normal (603 mm per year) is 54 mm (8.2 %) below the 1961–1990 one (657 mm). Over 1991–2020, November is on average the wettest month (68 mm) and April the driest (28 mm). Between 1992 and 2011, 11 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 | 24.7 °C | 25.9 °C | +1.2 °C | 78 mm | 47 mm | −31 mm |
| February | 24.5 °C | 25.1 °C | +0.6 °C | 53 mm | 61 mm | +8 mm |
| March | 21.9 °C | 21.7 °C | −0.2 °C | 52 mm | 42 mm | −10 mm |
| April | 17.6 °C | 17.4 °C | −0.2 °C | 53 mm | 28 mm | −25 mm |
| May | 13.3 °C | 13.1 °C | −0.2 °C | 64 mm | 41 mm | −23 mm |
| June | 10.1 °C | 10.3 °C | +0.2 °C | 36 mm | 49 mm | +13 mm |
| July | 9.0 °C | 9.2 °C | +0.2 °C | 50 mm | 51 mm | +1 mm |
| August | 10.6 °C | 10.6 °C | 0.0 °C | 57 mm | 49 mm | −8 mm |
| September | 13.3 °C | 13.8 °C | +0.5 °C | 42 mm | 50 mm | +8 mm |
| October | 17.0 °C | 17.3 °C | +0.3 °C | 62 mm | 54 mm | −8 mm |
| November | 20.2 °C | 21.0 °C | +0.8 °C | 55 mm | 68 mm | +13 mm |
| December | 23.2 °C | 23.5 °C | +0.3 °C | 55 mm | 63 mm | +8 mm |
The largest temperature change is in January (+1.2 °C) and the smallest in April (−0.2 °C); over the year the mean difference is +0.3 °C, and 8 months out of twelve are warmer than before. For rainfall, the largest difference is in June (+13 mm) and the smallest in January (−31 mm).
Records at Parkes (Macarthur Street)
- Warmest year: 18.6 °C, in 2009
- Coldest year: 16.0 °C, in 1992
- Driest year: 228 mm, in 1944
- Wettest year: 1207 mm, in 1950
- Warmest month: 29.3 °C, in January 1981
- Coldest month: 7.7 °C, in July 1971
- Wettest month: 299 mm, in April 1990
- Hottest day: 45.5 °C, on 21 February 2004
- Coldest day: −4.2 °C, on 13 July 1997
- Heaviest rain in one day: 149.9 mm, on 19 November 1943
2.6 °C separate the warmest year of the series from the coldest. Between the hottest and the coldest day on record, the range reaches 49.7 °C.
Temperature trend over 1961–2011
The regression line of annual mean temperature changes by +0.18 °C per decade between 1961 and 2011, about +0.9 °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 124 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 Parkes (Macarthur Street) 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 Parkes (Macarthur Street)?
Over 1991–2020, the annual mean temperature at Parkes (Macarthur Street) is 17.4 °C. It was 17.1 °C over 1961–1990, a difference of +0.3 °C.
What is the warmest year ever measured at Parkes (Macarthur Street)?
Since records began in 1890, the warmest year at Parkes (Macarthur Street) is 2009, at 18.6 °C on average. The coldest is 1992 (16.0 °C).
Is the climate at Parkes (Macarthur Street) getting warmer?
Yes: at Parkes (Macarthur Street), the annual mean temperature rises by 0.18 °C per decade between 1961 and 2011, +0.9 °C in total. 5 of the 10 warmest years in the series fall after 1999.
Towns near this station
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