Latest climate projections for SA
New climate change projections and guide for SA
New nationally-recognised climate change projections for South Australia are now available. See:
The new guide provides reliable information on the likely future changes in South Australia’s climate to help councils, regions, industry, and climate adaptation leaders to plan for our future.
It provides a summary of likely changes to key climate variables, such as temperature, rainfall, evapotranspiration, days of severe fire danger and sea level rise, under different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.
It includes new dynamically downscaled projections for SA from the NARCliM project, and replaces earlier SA Climate Ready projections. The guide provides summary tables for the NARCliM 1.5 climate projections for three future timeframes: 2020-2039, 2040-2059, and 2080-2099.
New projections maps and key findings
Statewide maps of key climate variables are now available. See:
The summary report includes:
- average annual rainfall
- average daily maximum temperature
- average annual number of days of 40 oC or above.
Benefits of new NARCliM 1.5 modelling
Computer modelled climate projections are the best information we have available on our future climate. The new NARCliM1.5 projections simulate a continuous period from 1951-2100, for two emissions scenarios:
- a ‘medium-range’ scenario (RCP 4.5)
- a ‘high’ emissions scenario (RCP 8.5).
The new projections offer significant enhancements on earlier projections. Notably, they use a dynamic modelling process that takes account of the influence of landscape features such as mountain ranges and coastlines. The extensive coverage of the NARCliM 1.5 modelling of South Australia enables statewide mapping of projected changes in average temperature, rainfall and extreme heat. The new projections also provide data for every location in South Australia.
Climate projections from the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology
The CSIRO, in collaboration with the Bureau of Meteorology, released climate projections for Australian regions in 2015. These projections can be found on the Climate Change in Australia website.
The projections describe likely changes in key variables for Australian regions, including temperature and rainfall averages and extremes, heatwaves, fire weather, cyclones, average and extreme sea level rise and ocean acidification. Other variables include wind, soil moisture, runoff, evapotranspiration, humidity and solar radiation.
Climate Projections from the Goyder Institute for Water Research
The Goyder Institute for Water Research, as part of the SA Climate Ready Project, released the most comprehensive set of downscaled climate projections data ever available in South Australia in 2015. This data complements the national scale projections produced by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.Data is available for six climate variables: rainfall, temperature maximum, temperature minimum, areal potential evapotranspiration, solar radiation, and vapour pressure deficit.
Find out more
- Guide to climate projections for risk assessment and planning in South Australia 2022
- New climate projections for SA maps and key findings
- Climate Change Science and Knowledge Plan for South Australia 2022
- South Australian Trend and Condition Report Cards
- Enviro Data SA
- Climate Change in Australia
- Goyder Institute for Water Research
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