Please help me to create a better travel climate map

Hi Heiner,
As a general guide the star rating on your map is good. My only comment is that southern Australia (numbers 6-10 and 1 on your map) while rated as good on your map, will usually get heatwaves in the months of December, January, and February with temperatures 35 to 40+ deg C, usually only for a few days at a time, but sometimes on more than one occasion, this is accompanied by high fire danger and closure of campgrounds and national parks especially in the inland.
In the northern tropics summer will see temperatures in the mid to high 30's, with high humidity, you will also get rain and thunderstorms which are not too much of an issue, what will give you problems are low pressure systems bringing flooding rain/cyclonic winds, and in the far north the onset of the monsoon from December onward in the top end, later in North Queensland, this will cause flooding and road closures from a few days to more than a week.
The Australian Bureau of Meterology is your best source of information seeBureau of Meterology climate data for location specific data.

November is called “suicide month” in Darwin.
The build up to the wet is just Bearable with storms across the whole horizon.
Only time I have ever drunk 12 stubbies in a row without realising it.
Apparently more people commit suicide than other times.

Re Cairns.
Cairns is in the wet tropics so gets lots of rain. Tully just south is the wettest place in Oz.
However Townsville next south is in the dry tropics so while hot at say 37 during the day is not so humid and bearable unless of course a cyclone chooses to land fall.
I owned a house on Magnetisms island for a while and did work in January. The locals thought I was mad.

Brisbane " hot, humid, rainy" is nothing like Cairns and Darwin "hot, humid, rainy ".
Avoid the north Dec, Jan, Feb if you can.
Be prepared for some hot days in Vic and SA in the same months.
SW Western Australia gets cold and wet in May, June.

Cheers
Jim

Heiner

In Australia, we have 6 true seasons, depending what part of the country you visit.

In the Tropics, 2 main season, the dry and the wet.

In the southern parts of Australia, 4 true seasons, summer , autumn, winter and spring.

The general rule of thumb.....cooler winter southern months you head north to the warmer parts of Australia, while in the peak of the summer months, you head south to the more milder part of Australia like Tasmania, Victoria and the like.

Example are you would not want to visit Central Australia in the peak of summer when temperates can be well into the very high 40’s and low 50’s while winter temperatures will be in the low 20’s and perfect.

A couple of comments.

Alice Springs & the Red Centre can be *very* cold in June/July. We experienced minus 6 deg.C & our water pipes froze solid. However these are night temperatures. As soon as the sun goes down, temperatures plummet. Daytime temperatures ate still generally pleasant.


Top End 'build up' season & wet season can be (Nov-to March)'ish can be very oppressive, but having spent the past two years in the Top End we have found the humidity & heat manageable & nowhere near as bad as many southerners suggest. Yes there are weeks/months where your skin is never dry, but you learn to manage this , but it can be a bit miserable until you do. (Johnsons Baby powder is wonderful!) & heat rashes can be a nuisance (there are creams which help). We had no air conditioning which many would suggest is necessary for survival, but we did have good fans & airflow. We also adapted by managing our time - if anything requiring physical work was needed , up at first light was the time.... by 8am it was getting too hot. The upside is getting to experience the top end when it's green & lush & with spectacular weather & skies, all at a time when there are far less tourists around. Touring can be problematic due to unpredictable flooding, but if you can find one or two places to base yourself in the north for a wet season (preferably under cover - certainly not a time to be under canvas - we have found that house sitting/caretaking a very suitable option) it can be very rewarding & allow access to places at their most vibrant. If unprepared or unwilling to adapt, to just keep on keeping on as you can further south could become very miserable very rapidly. Like many things preparation & mental outlook is everything, so some cannot manage a Wet, & some revel in it. As a European in Oz for a holiday it *would* be challenging (even the drier daily heat of summer in much of the rest of the country can be challenging when not used to it), but you do adapt & expecting to & having a willingness to adapt goes a long way. The biggest challenge for most Europeans is not recognising the physical & mental toll that travelling the huge distances in constant heat can have on the traveller. The biggest mistake is trying to fit too much into too short a time frame. Best to have a rough plan & a preparedness to 'play it by ear. I recall talking to a young English woman in Canberra many years ago, she was at the end of her touring holiday & had seen a fair bit of Australia. However to listen to her describe her experience one could have been forgiven for thinking that rather than touring a huge diverse continent, that she had in fact been undertaking a prolonged endurance test! In her case it was the flies which dominated her anecdotes!

Dear Heiner

My suggestion is you look at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology website as suggested by others. It has comprehensive historical data available for free download.

What is hot for someone living in Finland is not hot for for someone living in Alice Springs. So weather according to people is very subjective. Best to get the actual data if you can and then make your own judgement.

Link to Bureau of Meteorology climate maps: http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/climate_averages/temperature/index.jsp?maptype=1&period=jan#maps

Cheers John

JMHO, but I chuckled at Darwin being marked "very good" for June through September.

I was in Darwin 28 June through 1 July 2019. It was okay early in the day. I got out to a park each morning and did some birding. But by mid-day I sought refuge in my air conditioned hotel room.

However, I have long hated humidity. Perhaps you are okay with it. :)

Edit: After getting through all the posts, I see that you too are not a fan of humidity (or bugs)! ;)

The hire campervan leg of my 2019 trip began in Darwin on 11 May. My itinerary had me heading south on the Stuart Highway.

By the time I picked up the vehicle and did all my shopping, I didn't have time to drive very far. In fact I ended up spending the night at the little Manton Dam CG. Right next to the highway, with road trains going by periodically though the night. :(

Worse yet, it of course was warm and humid. Plus there was a gap in the flyscreen material that let in a horde of flying insects! While the ambient conditions kept me up very late, I stayed busy swatting bugs inside the campervan (after temporarily fixing the screen)!