page_title: Kangaroo Island
section_title: Climate
hierarchical_section_title: Kangaroo Island / Environment / Climate
caption_attribution_description: English: Little Sahara, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Photo taken by Stephen West in January 2005 with a Digitrex DSC-2100 digital camera.
context_page_description: Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta, is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia 112 km southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Point in Backstairs Passage, which is 13.5 km from the Fleurieu Peninsula.
  The native population of Aboriginal Australians that once occupied the island disappeared from the archaeological record when the land became an island following rising sea levels several thousand years ago. It was subsequently settled intermittently by sealers and whalers in the early 19th century, and from 1836 on a permanent basis during the British colonisation of South Australia.
  Since then the island's economy has been principally agricultural, with a southern rock lobster fishery and with tourism growing in importance. The largest town, and the administrative centre, is Kingscote. The island has several nature reserves to protect the remnants of its natural vegetation and native animals, with the largest and best-known being Flinders Chase National Park at the western end.
context_section_description: Having a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb), the winters between June and September are mild and wet, the summers usually warm and dry. Tempered by the ocean, particularly on the coastline, maximum temperatures in summer rarely exceed 35 °C (95 °F).
  Average temperatures in August range between 13 and 16 °C (55 and 61 °F) and in February, the hottest month, between 20 and 25 °C (68 and 77 °F).
  Between May and September the island receives two-thirds of its annual rainfall, varying from 450 millimetres (18 in) in Kingscote to around 900 millimetres (35 in) near Roo Lagoon on the top of the central plateau. The wettest month is July.
caption: Little Sahara
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