How much cooler and wetter is it up in the Hills?

The stations, west to east

Five Bureau of Meteorology stations stand on one line from the city to the river. The Bureau's own climate statistics give each one its site number, its latitude and longitude, and its height above sea level: Adelaide (Kent Town) at 48 metres, Mount Lofty at 685, Stirling at 496, Mount Barker at 359, and Murray Bridge at 33.

Their records are not the same length, and two have ended. Kent Town's began in 1977 and closed on 31 July 2020, the date of its latest available data. Stirling's began in 1884 and closed on 30 June 1964. Mount Lofty commenced in 1985, Mount Barker in 1861 and Murray Bridge in 1885, and the Bureau lists those three as open, each with data to 1 September 2026.

Rain, month by month

Each row below is one station, in the same west-to-east order as the section, and each bar is the mean rainfall for one month of the year, from January on the left to December on the right. All five rows share one scale so they can be read against each other: the full height of a row stands for 200 mm of rain in a month, and every bar is drawn from zero.

• Adelaide (Kent Town)

  547.1 mm a year over 41 years of record, and 536.2 mm in the median year, which the Bureau prints as its decile 5 figure

• Mount Lofty

  963.2 mm a year over 15 years of record, and 941.4 mm in the median year

• Stirling

  1,191.0 mm a year over 80 years of record, and 1,197.4 mm in the median year

• Mount Barker

  761.9 mm a year over 165 years of record, and 745.3 mm in the median year

• Murray Bridge

  347.9 mm a year over 137 years of record, and 345.8 mm in the median year

The shape of the year is much the same at all five stations. At four of them the wettest month is June; at Mount Barker it is July. At four the driest month is February; at Murray Bridge it is January.

Days of rain tell the same story from a different angle. The Bureau counts the days that reach at least 1 mm of rain: 82.0 days a year at Kent Town, 103.1 at Mount Lofty, 100.2 at Stirling, 88.7 at Mount Barker and 64.8 at Murray Bridge, each over its own run of years.

A Department for Environment and Water technical note for the Western Mount Lofty Ranges puts the total yearly rainfall across the ranges between about 400 mm in the lowest places and more than 1,000 mm in the highest. Four of the five stations sit inside that range; Stirling's older record, at 1,191.0 mm a year, sits a little above it.

Warmth, month by month

Here the same twelve months are drawn again, this time as the mean maximum temperature at each station, the Bureau's figure for the average of each day's highest reading. These rows share one scale of their own: the full height stands for 30 °C, drawn from zero, with January on the left and December on the right.

• Adelaide (Kent Town)

  29.6 °C in January, 15.4 °C in July, and 22.5 °C across the year

• Mount Lofty

  23.5 °C in January, 9.1 °C in July, and 16.2 °C across the year

• Stirling

  24.9 °C in January, 10.6 °C in July, and 17.7 °C across the year

• Mount Barker

  27.4 °C in January, 13.0 °C in July, and 20.1 °C across the year

• Murray Bridge

  29.5 °C in January, 16.3 °C in July, and 23.1 °C across the year

January is the warmest month at all five stations, and it is where the section shows the ridge at its plainest. Kent Town averages 29.6 °C in that month and Murray Bridge 29.5 °C, against 23.5 °C at Mount Lofty on the crest, with Mount Barker at 27.4 °C and Stirling at 24.9 °C on its shorter and older record.

Winter shows most clearly in the nights. The mean minimum in July is 5.0 °C at Mount Lofty, 4.6 °C at both Stirling and Mount Barker, 5.5 °C at Murray Bridge and 7.6 °C at Kent Town, where the city holds its warmth through the night.

Reading the comparison fairly

The Bureau's tables carry the years behind each figure, and those years differ. The rainfall figures cover 41 years at Kent Town (1977 to 2020), 15 at Mount Lofty (2009 to 2026), 80 at Stirling (1884 to 1964), 165 at Mount Barker (1861 to 2026) and 137 at Murray Bridge (1885 to 2026).

The Bureau's own note explains part of the difference: monthly statistics appear only where there are more than ten years of data, and the number of years can differ between one element and another if the observing programme at a site changed. Mount Lofty holds both kinds of record in one place. Its mean rainfall rests on 15 years, from 2009 to 2026, while its mean maximum temperature rests on 35 years, from 1990 to 2026, even though the station commenced in 1985.

A mean can be lifted or lowered by a few very wet or very dry years, which is why the Bureau prints a median beside it. Its decile 5 (median) rainfall is 536.2 mm at Kent Town, 941.4 at Mount Lofty, 1,197.4 at Stirling, 745.3 at Mount Barker and 345.8 at Murray Bridge, each over its own run of years. At Stirling the median sits a little above the mean; at each of the other four it sits below.

The latest dates of data show how current each record is: 31 July 2020 at Kent Town, 1 September 2026 at Mount Lofty, Mount Barker and Murray Bridge, and 1 December 1964 at Stirling. The Bureau prepared all five tables on 9 October 2026.

The walk up Mount Lofty from Waterfall Gully climbs the face that these stations measure, and the hills face guide follows the same slope down to the city.