Corowa, Rutherglen thunderstorms: 150-200mm of rainfall recorded

Corowa airport’s January daily rainfall record was bettered by a nearby farm where 200 millimetres was recorded on Saturday night.

Andrew Russell on his farm at Lilliput last year. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Farms on either side of the Murray River have been pounded by weekend thunderstorms which dumped record rainfall totals.

Phil Penny’s property northeast of Corowa copped 200mm overnight on Saturday with an initial dump of 20mm followed by a further 180mm fall between midnight and 3am he described as the most intense of his farming career.

The highest January daily rainfall recorded at the nearby Corowa airport was 125.5mm in 1934.

“I’ve never seen rain in my lifetime like it,” Mr Penny said.

“We were definitely in the hit zone. I’m 52 and it absolutely belted down.

“We’ve probably got out of it reasonably well. We lost a small section of fence that got pushed over.

“But we will bank it now.”

Mr Penny tracked the slow moving storm on the radar from around 2am.

“It just hung around and drained itself basically,” he said.

The most intense rain he had previously experienced was in 2011 when more than 100mm fell.

The heavy rain forced the closure of the Murray Valley Highway, Federation Way and Chiltern-Rutherglen Road.

The Bureau of Meteorolgy is forecasting an end to the humid conditions on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Andrew Russell’s property south of Rutherglen had 151mm from the same storm.

“We went to bed as it was raining and got up to water everywhere,” he said.

“Fortunately we haven’t had a huge amount of damage.

“We’ve got a few fences down and there is debris on the roads.

“The water is subsiding reasonably quickly, but it’s still very, very wet in the paddocks.”

The Corowa, Rutherglen and Chiltern townships also had falls of more than 150mm, but nearby farming communities including Balldale saw minimal rain.