THE last month of winter was warmer than average, although overnight temperatures were slightly colder than normal.
August was also wetter than usual, making up for minimal rain in June and July.
The last three months were generally cooler than the long-term average maximums and overnight minimums were slightly above average for the first two months of Winter.
The average August maximum recorded at Kerang was 16.2 degrees, which was slightly less than a degrees higher than the long-term average.
The hottest August maximum was 21.1 degrees on August 14 and the coldest day was the 3rd, when 8.7 degrees was recorded, the coldest August day since records were kept from 1880.
The previous coldest August day was 9.0 degrees in 1974.
Minimum temperatures averaged 4.7 degrees, about half a degree below the long-term average.
The lowest overnight temperature last month was -0.4 degrees, one of eight days when the minimum was one degree or less.
The dry start to winter gave way to above-average rain in August, when 53.4 millimetres was recorded, 16.1 millimetres above the long-term average.
Just 1.2 millimetres fell in June and 20 in July, meaning that the Winter rainfall was 32.8 millimetres below average.
Despite the winter total, rainfall so far in 2017 is 11.9 millimetres above the long-term average.
