Hottest, driest start to year for parts of southeast Australia

SOUTHEAST Australia has recorded one of its hottest and driest starts to a year on record.

Feel the burn: Southeast Australia has sweltered under a hotter, drier-than-average start to the year.

SOUTHEAST Australia has recorded one of its hottest and driest starts to a year on record.

And it appears little reprieve is in sight, with the Bureau of Meteorology pointing to warmer-than-average temperatures and average to drier-than-normal conditions over the next three months.

The outlook is not good news for farmers banking on an early autumn break to get their winter cropping programs underway. Anzac Day is considered the ideal date for an autumn break in southeast Australia.

BOM’s climate outlook, released last week, pointed to a 40-55 per cent chance of average rain for most of Victoria until the end of April. There’s a slightly better chance of rain for parts of East Gippsland, while the potential is less in the far west of the state.

rainfall map page 6-7 feb 6 online artwork

Grain Producers Australia southern chairman Andrew Weidemann said “an enormous dry drought period” along the east coast had “caught a lot of people unawares”.

“It’s pretty harsh,” Mr Weidemann said. “We will need above average rainfall to get the soil back to where we can grow an average crop.”

He said many growers had undertaken summer spraying following rain across the Victorian cropping belt in readiness for crop planting next season.

“We’ve still got to grow something, and that’s the main concern, what the weather pattern is going to do,” he said.

It follows Australia’s hottest January on record with maximum temperatures 3.37C above average.

Kerang set a new Victorian record for the hottest January day, with 47.6C eclipsing the 47.2C recorded at Mildura in 1939. Other centres to record their highest January maximums included Swan Hill (47.5C), Deniliquin (47.2C), Kyabram (47.1C), Hillston (47C), Echuca (46.9C), Ouyen (46.7C) and Walpeup (46.6C).

Hay equalled its hottest January temperature twice, with the mercury hitting 47.7C. It was a scorching month in the NSW Riverina and Victorian Mallee, with Hillston and Ivanhoe recording 18 days above 40C followed by Griffith (17 days), Hay (16 days) and Mildura (13 days).

Along with the record heat came the record dry with Portland, Aireys Inlet, Port Fairy, Horsham Airport, Balook and Rhyll all noting their driest January on record.

All 36 centres monitored by The Weekly Times recorded a drier-than-average January with all but five measuring less than half their normal totals.