A hottest December day on record, the warmest average January and November and lowest rainfall in nearly 30 years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
If there was ever any doubt that 2019 was extremely hot and dry, the statistics prove it in black and white.
Data from the Bureau of Meteorology shows Tocal had its hottest December day on record with a top of 45 degrees on the 21st.
It was 0.8 degrees hotter than the previous December record which occurred back in 1990.
The station also posted its warmest average January and November on record with means of 35.3 and 31.1 degrees respectively.
The annual rainfall recorded at Tocal was also at its lowest since the early 1990s.
A Mercury review of data from the BOM shows the yearly rainfall for 2019 (579.4mm) was the lowest recorded at the weather station since 1991.
The data for Maitland has only been recorded in its current location - Maitland Airport - since 2016.
However December 21 last year - when the mercury reached 44.2 degrees at the airport - was hotter than any December day recorded at the old weather station at Maitland Visitor's Centre, which operated from 1997 to 2016.
December 21 was also the hottest day in Maitland for the entire year.
December was also the driest month of the year. Just 0.6mm of rain was recorded for the entire month at the airport.
There was an unseasonably hot day recorded at Maitland Airport in June. The temperature reached 25.3 degrees on June 11. The hottest June day recorded at the visitor's centre was 24.6 degrees, which happened in 2004.
There were 11 days above 40 degrees in Maitland last year and a whopping 50 days where the temperature busted 35 degrees.
The hot dry year was shown in the Hunter's water storage level.
Hunter Water's total storage sat above 81 per cent in January 2019 - but has dropped to just 54.4 per cent at the start of 2020.
Level 2 water restrictions are expected to be introduced on January 20.
