Climate
Over half of New South Wales is arid to semi arid. However, most areas in the eastern portion have a temperate climate, ranging from humid subtropical to the northern coast and oceanic to the southern coast. The Snowy Mountains region in the south-east falls in the alpine climate/highland climate zone, with cool to cold weather all year around and snowfalls in the winter.
The climate is generally mild and mostly free from extremes of heat and cold, though very high temperatures occur in the northwest and very cold temperatures on the Southern Tablelands. The climate of the coast is influenced by the warm waters of the Tasman Sea, which usually keep the region free from extremes of temperature and provide moisture to increase rainfall; the annual rainfall ranges from about 750 millimetres (30 in) in the south to 2,000 millimetres (79 in) in the north. In the far northwest, the hottest temperatures in the State mostly occur, and where the annual mean rainfall drops below 200 millimetres (8 in).
The highest maximum temperature recorded was 49.7 °C (121 °F) at Menindee in the state's west on 10 January 1939. The lowest minimum temperature was −23 °C (−9 °F) at Charlotte Pass in the Snowy Mountains on 29 June 1994. This is also the lowest temperature recorded in the whole of Australia excluding the Antarctic Territory.
Read more about this topic: New South Wales
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“Then climate is a great impediment to idle persons; we often resolve to give up the care of the weather, but still we regard the clouds and the rain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A tree is beautiful, but what’s more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples’ character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe.... What a terrible future!”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)