Across the whole of the continent the Australian mean temperature was 1.54 degrees Celsius below average for June – breaking the previous record of 1.4 degrees below average set in 1982. It is the second successive year in which June has been much cooler than normal.

June was also a notably wet month in most of northern Australia and many parts of the east coast.

The Bureau’s Head of Climate Analysis, Dr David Jones, said: “The weather was associated with a number of unseasonable cloud bands affecting the tropics and four major east coast lows that formed off the coast of New South Wales and eastern Victoria.”

The tropics experienced the wettest June on record while coastal areas of south-eastern Australia covering the coast and adjacent tablelands from the Hunter Valley in the north to Gippsland in the south experienced exceptional rainfall.

“South-eastern Australia was affected by four major low pressure systems during the month, each bringing heavy rain and severe winds and flooding,” said Dr Jones.

Heavy rains lead to increases in some depleted water storages, especially in the Sydney area.

Away from these regions it was generally a dry month, particularly in the south-west of Western Australia. It was also dry across Tasmania and most of South Australia, extending into the west of Victoria and New South Wales.