Maitland experienced its warmest Autumn on record this year, with the average daytime temperature coming in at 2.8 degrees above average.
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The average daytime temperature recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology was 27.2 degrees at Maitland Visitors Centre.
The average overnight temperature of 14 degrees was also 1.8 degrees above the long-term average.
While the Bureau’s records only date back to 1997 at the visitors centre, nearby stations with longer records including Paterson, Newcastle and Cessnock also experienced the highest mean temperature for autumn on record.
With the warm weather came the lowest rainfall on record.
Maitland encountered less than a quarter of its normal autumn rainfall.
Only 60.2 mm fell across the autumn months, compared to the long-term average of 248.4 mm.
Paterson also experienced the lowest autumn rainfall since 1965.
Bureau of Meteorology Climatologist Felicity Gamble said the unusual conditions were due to a number of factors.
Warm sea surface temperatures, few intrusions of cool air from the south, an underlying trend of increasing temperatures across the country and a strong El Niño event helped the summer weather to linger for longer.
An El Niño occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become substantially warmer than average.
But cooler weather set in towards the end of May, which Ms Gamble said was associated with low pressure systems and cold fronts that generally develop in Autumn.
Ms Gamble said climate models for the next six to nine months showed an increased chance of La Niña developing towards the end of winter.
“This generally has an opposite impact on our rainfall patterns to El Niño – so increasing the chances of above average rainfall.”
Ms Gamble said there was no strong shift towards out of the ordinary daytime temperatures in the Hunter during winter, but that overnight temperatures were likely to be warmer than average.
