Quantification of relationship between annual daily maximum temperature and annual daily maximum rainfall in South Australia

The empirical relationship between annual daily maximum temperature (ADMT) and annual daily maximum rainfall (ADMR) was investigated. The data were collected from four weather stations located in Adelaide, South Australia, from 1988 to 2017. Due to the influence of sea surface temperature on rainfall and temperature, the distance from the weather station to the sea was considered in the selection of weather stations. Two weather stations near the sea and two inland weather stations were selected. Three non-parametric statistical tests (Kruskal–Wallis, Mann–Whitney, and correlation) were applied to perform statistical analysis on the ADMT and ADMR data. It was revealed that the temperature and rainfall in South Australia varies according to weather station location. The distance from the sea to the weather station was found to have limited influence on temperature and rainfall. Meanwhile, with the 0.05 level of significance, the association between ADMT and ADMR near sea stations is not as significant as the association between the two inland weather stations. It is relatively unrealistic to use ADMR to predict ADMT, or vice versa, since their correlation is not statistically significant (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient: −0.106).