Wintry blast delivers autumn snow dump
As round one winter sports played out across West Gippsland on the weekend, a wintry blast delivered 22 centimetres of snow at Mt Baw Baw.
More 30mm of rain was recorded for the weekend and icy temperatures made for true winter conditions and many home fires being lit and heating ramped up.
The highest temperature recorded at Nilma North Bureau of Meteorology weather station on the weekend was 15.1 degrees Celsius at 1.10pm on Saturday. Sunday’s top was 12.7 degrees at 2pm, but the apparent temperature was 10.5, the only time of the day it cracked double figures.
The wintry conditions came after the first month of autumn delivered a rainfall total almost spot on to the 115-year average.
Rainfall recorded in Warragul for March totalled 64.8mm, slightly lower than the average of 65.1mm.
Rainfall for the first three months of the year is above average, with this month’s rainfall taking the year-todate total to 191.4mm.
The average January to March rainfall is 175.6mm.
Rain was recorded on 14 days in March, with two bigger downfalls of 17.4mm on March 14 and 10.8mm on March 25.
The wettest week of the month was from March 23 to March 29 when rain was recorded on seven consecutive days and delivered half of the month’s total.
While the March total was in line with the average recorded since 1906, it was the highest March rainfall in five years, with the past four years recording between 32 and 49mm.
Temperatures recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology were similar to last year with the temperature reaching 30 degrees Celsius on only one day – March 13.
Last year there were two days in March where the temperature topped 30. In both years, the mean daily temperature recorded for March was 22 degrees Celsius.
The lowest daily temperature was recorded on March 5 when West Gippsland reached a top of only 17.1 degrees Celsius. The lowest overnight temperature was a chilly 5.1 degrees on April 15.
The BOM outlook for the next three months is below average rainfall, with a drier than average May forecast.