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Australia's warmest financial year on record

The data is in, and Australia just registered its warmest financial year on record with a mean temperature more than 1.5°C above the long-term average.

It may seem odd to measure the climate of Australia’s fiscal year, but there are benefits to compiling climate summaries for the 12-month period from July to June.

Firstly, the July-to-June period contains one whole summer (and severe weather season) in Australia. This can make it a good alternative to using calendar years for annual climate summaries, which split summers but contain whole winters.

Secondly, financial year climate summaries can be aligned with other reporting processes that occur over the July-to-June period. This makes it easier for researchers and analysts to compare climate information with other datasets over the same period.

A financial year like no other

Based on temperature observations collected from 112 weather stations across the country, Australia's national mean temperature in the 2024-25 financial year was 1.68°C above the 1961-90 average. This made it Australia’s warmest financial year in records dating back to 1910, beating the previous record from 2015-16 by 0.28°C.

Image: Mean temperature deciles for the 2024-25 financial year. Source: Bureau of Meteorology.

In addition to record-breaking air temperatures, it was also the warmest financial year on record for the oceans surrounding Australia.

The average sea surface temperature in the Australian region during the 2024-25 financial year was 0.94°C above the 1961-90 average. This beat the previous record anomaly of +0.73°C from 2023-24.

Image: Financial year sea surface temperature anomalies for the Australian region between 1900 and 2025. Source: Bureau of Meteorology.

The 2024-25 financial year was also slightly wetter than usual for Australia, although not as wet as the previous two financial years.