General News
15 September, 2026
Ararat records warmest winter
ARARAT has notched up its warmest winter on record despite receiving almost 50 per cent more rain than usual across the season. Bureau of Meteorology figures show Ararat Prison recorded a mean temperature of 9.2 degrees across June, July and August – the highest in its 50-year winter record.
It surpassed the previous mark of 9.1 degrees set in 1988.
The record came during an unusually wet winter for the district, with 274.4 millimetres of rain recorded across the three months, about 46 per cent more than the winter average of 187.9mm.
Ararat’s mean maximum temperature was 13.7 degrees, 1.2 degrees above average, while its mean minimum of 4.6 degrees was 0.8 degrees above average.
The unusual combination was also evident statewide, with Victoria recording both its warmest winter on record and its wettest winter since 2016.
The state’s winter mean temperature was 10 degrees, 1.4 degrees above the 1961–1990 average.
Mean minimum temperatures were particularly warm, averaging 5.7 degrees across Victoria – 1.62 degrees above average and the highest recorded since statewide records began in 1910.
The wet winter also represented a dramatic change in conditions around Ararat during the course of this year.
Only 84.6mm fell during autumn, about two-thirds of the seasonal average and classified by the Bureau as low rainfall.
By contrast, winter delivered 146 per cent of the rainfall normally recorded across the three months.
It was the second successive wetter-than-average winter for Ararat.
This year’s 274.4mm was about 45mm higher than the 229.2mm recorded last winter and more than twice the 123.9mm received during winter 2024.
The Bureau classified the 2024 winter total as very low.
Wet conditions this year extended across much of central and western Victoria.
Ballarat Aerodrome received 316.8mm during winter, 56 per cent above average, while the Pyrenees station at Ben Nevis recorded 315.8mm, about 30 per cent above average.
Stawell Aerodrome recorded 220.2mm, about 40 per cent above average.
Across Victoria, area-averaged winter rainfall reached 231.2mm, 13 per cent above the long-term average and the highest winter total since 2016.
That marked a substantial change from 2024, when Victoria’s winter rainfall was 30 per cent below average and its lowest since 2006.
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