Driest on record

An overnight deluge on Monday night last week and during the early hours of Tuesday was a welcome relief for the district that had its driest February and March on record.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s official recording station at Nilma North registered 68.4 millimetres for the 24 hours to Tuesday morning.

Falls of 50 to more than 70 millimetres were widespread across West and South Gippsland.

But other than some puddles on and along the sides of roads there was little water lying about on Tuesday.

Household lawns and gardens and parched paddocks soaked up the steady downpour.

It was welcome relief after March had produced just 14.8 millimetres at Nilma North following a miserly five millimetres in February - a two month total of just 19.8 millimetres.

Warragul’s rain for the two months totalled 35.8 millimetres.

To get figures anything near comparable the clock needed to be turned back a century to 1923 when Warragul got 35 millimetres of rain in February and March.

While the 115-year average across both months is 120.7 millimetres there have been no shortage of years in which March rainfall has been sparse.

The record low for the month is three millimetres, in 1951; 1972 wasn’t much better with seven millimetres, and only 15 millimetres was registered in 1986.

Three of the four years from 1997 to

2000 had totals in the low 20s.

The heavy rain at the start of last week was not far short of the local average for April of 80.9 millimetres but the Bureau’s outlook for the region until the end of June is there is a 60 to 80 per cent chance of below median rainfall.

There is also a likelihood of higher than average temperatures across those months.