Victoria’s record summer heat to be followed by wet, warm autumn
It might have been a chilly start today but don’t go reaching for the electric blanket just yet. Autumn is set to bring warmer than usual nights and plenty of rain after our record summer heat.
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After a summer of extremes with heat, fire, smoke, dust and heavy downpours, Victoria is set for warmer autumn nights and plenty of rain for the next month.
The weather bureau’s autumn outlook has warned overnight temperatures are likely to be warmer than average across the state for the next three months, with rainfall also expected to be higher in western Victoria.
March falls are also predicted to be higher across most of the state except the far east, which comes after parts of Melbourne’s east recorded month’s worth of February rain in less than 24 hours last week.
Bureau climatologist Dr Andrew Watkins said summer was the tale of two halves, with late rain helping firefighters contain bushfires in the nation’s east.
“As we often see once the monsoon arrives in the north, some of that tropical moisture was dragged south leading to some of the good recent rainfall over the country’s east,” he said on Thursday.
“The rainfall helped contain many of the long-lived bushfires in the east and helped ease drought conditions in some locations.
“But many inland regions experienced only patchy rainfall and we still need to see sustained rainfall to relieve drought in many areas.”
Dr Watkins said January and February would still rank among the nation’s ten warmest ever even after extra moisture and cloud moderated temperatures compared to the record warm December.
“Victoria had a warm summer with much of the state much warmer than average, about a degree above average overall,” Dr Watkins said.
“(It was) the third driest December on record.”
Melbourne’s February rainfall has already eclipsed the monthly average, with 76mm recorded during the first 26 days, with the average monthly falls usually about 48mm.
Dr Watkins said the current climate was being driven more by local patterns than any trends in the Pacific or Indian oceans.
“Autumn overall is looking at fairly patchy rainfall, possibly a bit more in the west and warmer than normal conditions as well,” he said.
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