Characterizing the Local Variations of the Northern Australian Rainy Season

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, we introduce a localized definition of the onset and retreat of the northern Australian rainy season that is solely based on gridded rainfall analysis. Our analysis shows that the local onset/retreat of the rainy season has considerable spatial heterogeneity. Onset is earlier and the length of the rainy season is longer to the west of the Gulf of Carpentaria than to its east. Furthermore, we also find the local onset/retreat is influenced by the wet and dry spells of the 30–60-day intraseasonal oscillation. Much of the retreat of the rainy season occurs in the dry phases of the intraseasonal oscillation. However, intriguingly, a majority of the local onset of the rainy season occurs during dry phases of the intraseasonal oscillation. The ENSO teleconnection with the variable-length northern Australian rainy season also exhibits spatial heterogeneity and significant differences from rainfall anomalies using the fixed-length boreal winter season. The onset, the retreat, the length, and the seasonal rainfall anomalies of the rainy season display a stronger correlation with the ENSO SST anomalies for the region east of 140°E relative to its west. The strong covariability of the local onset date with the corresponding seasonal length and seasonal rainfall anomalies over northern Australia offers the advantage of monitoring the onset of the northern Australian rainy season to provide an outlook for the forthcoming season. The proposed local definition of onset/retreat of the northern Australian rainy season is simple, objective, and unambiguous and is ideally suited for real-time monitoring of the evolution of the season.