Rainfall: How much rain did you get?

Key cropping areas have received welcome rainfall over the past week, and La Nina’s presence means there’s plenty more on the way.

Icy cold weather and rain have welcomed in the change of season this week as experts predict a wet winter ahead.

Some of the best falls over the past week are in key cropping areas across Victoria including Rutherglen (24mm on Monday and 34mm for the week) while in the northwest, Mildura recorded 23mm early this week and Swan Hill 20mm. Albury registered 30mm on Monday and nearly 37mm for the week.

But other areas like Hamilton registered less than 15mm over the past week and have recorded 142mm for the year to date, back on the 186mm average and 190mm registered until the end of May last year.

Ballarat was another centre to miss out, with less than 10mm for the past week and cold temperatures, with maximums below 10C for consecutive days early this week.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest climate outlook shows a slowly weakening La Nina would influence above-average winter rainfall for large tracts of Australia.

“Winter (June to August) rainfall is likely to be above median for much of Australia, with eastern and central regions very likely to exceed the median,” a BOM spokesman said.

It predicts parts of Australia – inland NSW, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory – would be in the “top 20 per cent of wettest winters”.

The rain predictions tie in with Rabobank winter crop outlook released this week, which has shown Australia is on track to record a third consecutive bumper harvest.

Rabobank said the season and plantings, which are up 1.4 per cent for wheat and 20.9 per cent for canola on last year, looked likely to “deliver a hat trick of great grain and oilseed production”.

Meanwhile, some of southern Australia’s biggest dams are near full going into winter.

On Monday, Hume Dam was at 92 per cent of capacity, holding 2764 gigalitres of water compared to 1364 gigalitres or 45 per cent at the same time last year.

The latest figures for Dartmouth showed it was at 94 per cent (last year 64 per cent) while major dams supplying NSW area also near capacity with Blowering Dam at 96 per cent and Burrinjuck 84 per cent earlier this week.