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Maitland sweltered through its hottest January on record.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Maitland Airport’s average daytime January temperature was 35.2 degrees Celsius in 2019 – five degrees warmer than the long term January average recorded at Maitland Visitor’s Centre between 1997 and 2016.
It eclipsed the hottest January recorded at the visitor’s centre of 31.6C in 2007 and the previous two averages at Maitland Airport of 33.1C in 2018 and 2017’s mean of 32.8C.
The local weather followed the trend of the national data, with Australia recording its hottest month on record in January. It was the first time the national monthly average temperature has exceeded 30 degrees.
Other locations in the Hunter also had their warmest average January on record this year.
Paterson suffered through an average January temperature of 35.3 – more than two whole degrees hotter than the previous record of 33C in 2018.
The Tocal station’s long-term January average is 29.9C.
Cessnock broke its record of 33.7C also set in 2018, with an average January temperature of 35.6C this year.
Bureau senior climatologist Dr Andrew Watkins said the heat through January was unprecedented.
"We saw heatwave conditions affect large parts of the country through most of the month, with records broken for both duration and also individual daily extremes," Dr Watkins said.
"The main contributor to this heat was a persistent high pressure system in the Tasman sea which was blocking any cold fronts and cooler air from impacting the south of the country.
"At the same time, we had a delayed onset to the monsoon in the north of the country which meant we weren't seeing cooler, moist air being injected from the north.
"The warming trend which has seen Australian temperatures increase by more than one degree in the last 100 years also contributed to the unusually warm conditions."
A spokesperson for the Bureau said they were predicting a more than 80 per cent chance that days and nights will be warmer than average in the coming three months.
The spokesperson also said there wasn’t a strong indication either way that February and March would be particularly wet or dry.
“However, it does look possible that April could see less rainfall than usual.”