the lignite financially unviable. Climate Salmon Gums has a mild semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk). According to both the Köppen and Trewartha classifications for humid climates it is thermally subtropical, the months of January and February exceeding and all months exceeding on average, though by the Köppen criteria for arid climates and the classification used by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology its yearly average (being less than ) is insufficient to qualify as such. Like many near-coastal areas of Australia, the climate is dominated by periodic exchanges between hot, dry air from the desert interior and cooler, humid air from the ocean, exemplified by the very large gulf between its averages and extreme high temperatures, the 1991–2020 normals placing the average yearly record high as and the highest ever recorded being on 28 January 2011. With its semi-arid, relatively high-latitude and mildly-elevated location from the moderating influences of the ocean, Salmon Gums can be one of the coldest places in Western Australia—its record low minimum of on 15 August 1970 is the fourth coldest record low and sixth coldest temperature recorded in the state, while its record low maximum of on 16 July 1946 is tied for the coolest in the state. Per the 1991–2020 normals, the average yearly record low is , placing it within USDA hardiness zone 9b and Australian National Botanic Gardens hardiness zone 3. An average of 70 days per year reach or exceed , putting it within American Horticultural Society heat zone 7. Precipitation is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year, but is dramatically more erratic and heavier per event on average in the summer than in the winter. References Towns in Western Australia Goldfields-Esperance Grain receival points of Western Australia