General News
4 October, 2023
Wild weather Low rainfall
DRY weather has well and truly arrived as the south west settles in to spring.
DRY weather has well and truly arrived as the south west settles in to spring.
Terang and Mortlake each experienced rainfall well below the long-term average throughout September.
September marked the first month the Bureau of Meteorology declared an El Nino event along with a positive Indian Ocean Dipole – with warmer, drier weather expected throughout spring and summer, along with increased risk of bushfires.
The highest daily rainfall occurred on September 10 as a severe storm caused havoc across the region, however despite the conditions which left emergency services scrambling just 10mm of rain was recorded in Terang and 9.6mm was recorded in Mortlake on the day.
Throughout September a total of 28mm of rain was recorded in Mortlake, the second lowest monthly total for the years to date (12mm in January).
The figure represented less than half of the long-term average monthly total of 80.2mm and well below the 2022 rainfall record of 70.4mm.
The total rainfall recorded in Mortlake through 2023 to date stands at 426.4mm, which remains above the long-term average of 376.5mm over the same period.
Meanwhile in Terang a total of 34.8mm of rain was recorded throughout September.
The total was less than half the long-term average result for the month of 80.2mm, and fell below the 88mm recorded during September 2022.
A total of 509.4mm of rain has hit the ground in Terang throughout the first nine months of 2023, falling below the total of 596.5mm long-term average over the same period.
*All rainfall figures have been collected from the Bureau of Meteorology.