Climate of the East Coast of Australia

Description

A set of climate statistics for 16 coastal locations along Eastern Australia. These sites were chosen to be approximately equally spaced to cover the whole eastern coast of Australia. For each site, climate statistics were calculated for the standard 30-year period 1971-2000. Only sites with nearly-complete data were chosen.

Usage

data(EastAuClimate)

Format

A data frame with the following 10 variables and 5 items of metadata for each of 16 sites.

SummerMaxTemp

average daily maximum air temperature (degrees C) in February.

SummerMinTemp

average daily minimum air temperature (degrees C) in February.

WinterMaxTemp

average daily maximum air temperature (degrees C) in July.

WinterMinTemp

average daily minimum air temperature (degrees C) in July.

SummerRain

median total precipitation in February (mm/month).

WinterRain

median total precipitation in July (mm/month).

MeanAnnRain

average total amount of precipitation recorded in a year (mm/year).

RainDays

average number of days in a year with at least 1 mm of precipitation.

ClearDays

average number of clear days in a year. This statistic is derived from cloud cover observations, which are measured in oktas (eighths). A clear day is recorded when the mean of the 9 am and 3 pm cloud observations is less than or equal to 2 oktas.

CloudyDays

average number of clear days in a year. A cloudy day is recorded when the mean of the 9 am and 3 pm cloud observations is greater than or equal to 6 oktas.

ID

BOM Site number.

Latitude

Site latitude (degrees North).

Longitude

Site longitude (degrees East).

Elevation

Site elevation (m).

State

Australian state: TAS = Tasmania, VIC = Victoria, NSW = New South Wales, QLD = Queensland.

The row names of the data frame give the location names. Note: these are not the official names of the climate stations.

Source

Sites were chosen by hand from maps on the Bureau of Meteorology website. The data were extracted manually from web pages under http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/ and processed to extract a subset of statistics. - by Felix Andrews felix@nfrac.org

Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth of Australia. Product IDCJCM0026 Prepared at Wed 31 Dec 2008.

Definitions of statistics adapted from http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/cdo/about/about-stats.shtml

Examples

data(EastAuClimate)

## Compare the climates of state capital cities
EastAuClimate[c("Hobart", "Melbourne", "Sydney", "Brisbane"),]

## A function to plot maps (a Lattice version of maps::map)
lmap <-
   function(database = "world", regions = ".", exact = FALSE,
            boundary = TRUE, interior = TRUE, projection = "",
            parameters = NULL, orientation = NULL,
            aspect = "iso", type = "l",
            par.settings = list(axis.line = list(col = "transparent")),
            xlab = NULL, ylab = NULL, ...)
{
   theMap <- map(database, regions, exact = exact,
                 boundary = boundary, interior = interior,
                 projection = projection, parameters = parameters,
                 orientation = orientation, plot = FALSE)
   xyplot(y ~ x, theMap, type = type, aspect = aspect,
          par.settings = par.settings, xlab = xlab, ylab = ylab,
          default.scales = list(draw = FALSE), ...)
}

## Plot the sites on a map of Australia
if (require("maps")) {
  lmap(regions = c("Australia", "Australia:Tasmania"),
       exact = TRUE, projection = "rectangular",
       parameters = 150, xlim = c(130, 170),
       panel = function(...) {
          panel.xyplot(...)
          with(EastAuClimate, {
            panel.points(Longitude, Latitude, pch = 16)
            txt <- row.names(EastAuClimate)
            i <- c(3, 4)
            panel.text(Longitude[ i], Latitude[ i], txt[ i], pos = 2)
            panel.text(Longitude[-i], Latitude[-i], txt[-i], pos = 4)
          })
       })
}

## Average daily maximum temperature in July (Winter).
xyplot(WinterMaxTemp ~ Latitude, EastAuClimate, aspect = "xy",
       type = c("p", "a"), ylab = "Temperature (degrees C)")

## (Make a factor with levels in order - by coastal location)
siteNames <- factor(row.names(EastAuClimate),
           levels = row.names(EastAuClimate))
## Plot temperature ranges (as bars), color-coded by RainDays
segplot(siteNames ~ WinterMinTemp + SummerMaxTemp, EastAuClimate,
        level = RainDays, sub = "Color scale: number of rainy days per year",
        xlab = "Temperature (degrees C)",
        main = paste("Typical temperature range and wetness",
           "of coastal Australian cities", sep = "\n"))

## Show Winter and Summer temperature ranges separately
segplot(Latitude ~ WinterMinTemp + SummerMaxTemp, EastAuClimate,
   main = "Average daily temperature ranges \n of coastal Australian sites",
   ylab = "Latitude", xlab = "Temperature (degrees C)",
   par.settings = simpleTheme(lwd = 3, alpha = 0.5),
   key = list(text = list(c("July (Winter)", "February (Summer)")),
              lines = list(col = c("blue", "red"))),
   panel = function(x, y, z, ..., col) {
      with(EastAuClimate, {
         panel.segplot(WinterMinTemp, WinterMaxTemp, z, ..., col = "blue")
         panel.segplot(SummerMinTemp, SummerMaxTemp, z, ..., col = "red")
      })
   })

## Northern sites have Summer-dominated rainfall;
## Southern sites have Winter-dominated rainfall.
xyplot(SummerRain + WinterRain ~ Latitude, EastAuClimate,
       type = c("p", "a"), auto.key = list(lines = TRUE),
       ylab = "Rainfall (mm / month)")

## Clear days are most frequent in the mid latitudes.
xyplot(RainDays + CloudyDays + ClearDays ~ Latitude, EastAuClimate,
       type = c("p", "a"), auto.key = list(lines = TRUE),
       ylab = "Days per year")