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South Australia’s desperately dry peninsulas

Source Weatherzone Wed 14 May 2025

The drought continues in South Australia’s Eyre, Yorke and Fleurieu peninsulas, and when you break down the rainfall deficiencies to raw statistics, the numbers are absolutely staggering. For those needing a South Australian geography refresher (from west to east), the Eyre is roughly triangular in shape, the Yorke is boot-shaped like Italy, and the Fleurieu starts just south of Adelaide, pointing southeast towards Kangaroo Island. All three protruding landmasses have endured severe rainfall deficiencies not just in 2025 but extending much longer. We’ll illustrate this with statistics from a weather station on each peninsula. Eyre Peninsula Image: Tuesday’s satellite image shows a grey-brown landscape in areas of grassland, with dark green areas due to areas of coastal shrubland and/or mallee woodlands. Port Lincoln, the city of almost 15,000 residents dubbed "the seafood capital of Australia", has had just 22.4mm of rainfall in 2025 to date. In the first two weeks of May 2025, Port Lincoln received just 2.2mm. The May monthly average is 41mm. If the dry pattern continues through till the end of May, it will be 12 straight months of below-average rainfall. Yorke Peninsula Image: Edithburgh is located on the coast just 15km SE of Yorketown. Edithburgh, a town of 500 residents on the SE tip of the peninsula, has had just 36.6mm of rainfall in 2025 to date. In the first two weeks of May 2025, Edithburgh received just 5mm. The May monthly average is 42.7mm. If the dry pattern continues through till the end of May, 16 of the last 17 months will have seen below-average rainfall. Fleurieu Peninsula Image: Parawa is located near the white letter "V" in the place name Victor Harbor. Parawa, an inland locality near the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula, has had just 46.8mm in 2025 to date. That’s around 20% of its running average for this stage of the year. In the first two weeks of May 2025, Parawa received just 5.8mm. The May monthly average is 95.7mm. If the dry pattern continues through till the end of May, the last 16 months will all have seen below-average rainfall (from February 2024 onwards). The South Australian drought obviously extends well beyond the three peninsulas mentioned in this story, and of course includes Adelaide, which has seen just 29.6mm of rain to date in 2025. But virtually the entirety of all three peninsulas are currently in the midst of their driest 15-month period on record, as this BoM chart below dramatically illustrates. Image: Rainfall deficiencies in the 15 months from February 2024 to April 2025. Source: BoM. Why such prolonged dry conditions? The lack of moisture-bearing cold fronts is the main reason behind the ongoing drought in southern parts of South Australia. This is consistent with the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) being in a largely positive phase over the last 12 months, meaning the band of westerly winds that often produces rainfall in southern SA has tended to contract towards the pole. READ MORE: What is the SAM and how does it affect Australia? - Weatherzone © Weatherzone 2025