2016 ends with a burst

A torrential downpour in the last few days of 2016 has helped West Gippsland to an almost normal year of rainfall.

Totals were well down on last year until Thursday, December 29, when the skies opened after a day of sultry heat and dumped around 50mm on most parts of the region.

Warragul finished with 970.3mm while the nearby Nilma North Bureau of Meteorology weather station recorded 901.8, both below the annual mean of 1020.2 for 1888-2015 but well above the 2015 total of 775mm.

The December total for Nilma North was 90.8, including 53mm on the Thursday, while Warragul recorded a monthly total of 79.8mm, with 29mm on the Thursday.

An unusually heavy fall of 21.6mm was also recorded in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday, December 9.

Christmas also recorded the hottest day of the month, with temperatures reaching a high of 35.7 on December 24 and 35.4 on Christmas day.

The very dry spring of 2015 – with just 17.4mm in October – was fortunately not repeated in 2016, with good spring rainfall across the region.

A healthy 104.2mm was recorded in October, 55.4mm in November and 90.8mm in December.

The year started with good rainfall in January, then returned to below-average rainfall in February, April and May before good rains in June and July.

Rain fell on a total of 177 days, or almost one day in every two.

The highest annual rainfall was recorded in 1952 when 1471mm was recorded for Warragul. The lowest annual rainfall was 629.6mm recorded in 1997.

Bureau figures dating back to 1888 showed the most rainfall recorded in one day was on December 1, 1934 when 189.7mm was recorded in the 24 hour period.

West Gippsland sweltered through its hottest day back in February when the mercury reached 39.9 on February 23. The next hottest day was 36 degrees Celsius on March 4.

The coldest day of the year was July 24 when daytime temperatures reached 7.8, the previous day was the next lowest for the year at 8.3.

The coldest overnight temperatures for the year were recorded in July and June with a 2.4 on July 17 and -2.1 on June 14.