ALMOST double the month’s usual rainfall has given district farmers the autumn break they needed.
Moisture from 10 days of rain during May and confirmation that the El Nino pattern of drier weather has ended has given farmers hope of follow-up falls during Winter.
After rainfall in March and April being slightly below the average, the May total of 62.8 millimetres was 27.2 millimetres above the long-term average and boosted the autumn total to 105.8 millimetres, which is 17.5 millimetres above average.
Rainfall for the first five months of the year is 171.6 millimetres, which is 37.4 above the average.
Autumn rainfall this year is the best since 174.4 fell in 2010 prior to the 2011 floods.
Prior to that, the district’s best autumn fall was 199 millimetres, which was recorded after just one millimetre was recorded on each of the last two months of summer.
The highest autumn rainfall since records began in 1880 was 298 millimetres in the flood year of 1956, when the annual total was 710 millimetres,
Daytime maximums and overnight minimums were also slightly above the long-term average.
The winter chill hit just two days early, with overnight minimums of 1.9 and 1.8 degrees being recorded this week.
The highest maximum in May was 26.1 on the 6th and the lowest was 12.7 on Sunday.
The highest maximum on record was 28.7 degrees in 1978.
The highest minimum temperature recorded during May was 15.2 degrees on the 9th and the lowest was 1.8 degrees on Tuesday.
The average minimum was 9.1 degrees, which was 2.0 above the long-term average.
The lowest minimum on record was minus 1.1 degrees in 1967.The overnight chill this week was aided by a ridge of high pressure that sat over much of Victoria. The freeze is being caused by the lengthening nights, as we approach the shortest day of the year in three weeks. Sunrise will occur locally at 7.34am and sunset will be at 5.18pm over between June 19 and 22.
