WINTER has left a dry taste in the mouths of most people across the Stawell region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
August is likely to take its place in weather history as one of the driest on record, especially for this time of year.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Stawell recorded just 12.8 millimetres of rain last month and all of it fell before August 12. The wettest 24 hours to 9am occurred on August 1 with 9.8mm of rain falling in gauges across Stawell.
The August total is well below the long term average of 55.1mm and comes on the back of below average rainfall in July as well.
The under whelming figures have contributed to a winter rainfall total of 113.8mm, which despite being half of this year's rainfall to date is far lower than the 208mm recorded for the same three month period last year.
With daytime maximum temperatures well above the long term average of 14 degrees Celsius for the last week of August Stawell finished the month with an average daytime maximum measuring 14.4 degrees.
The 22.3 degrees recorded on the final day of the month was our warmest day since May 16.
As we move into the second half of September day and night time temperatures sit at close to the long term average.
Overnight minimum temperatures during the first week of August were as low as six degrees below the long term monthly average of 4.7 degrees Celsius.
The string of below freezing mornings contributed to the below average minimum temperature for August which settled at 4.2 degrees.
The August 2 low of minus 1.1 degrees Celsius was dwarfed by the -2.2 degrees recorded on the following consecutive (August 3 and 4) mornings.
The overnight minimums were the lowest the town had experienced since July 2012, when the temperature also fell to -2.2 degrees Celsius.
Stawell's wettest 24 hours to 9am so far this year was on April 30 when the town soaked up 14.6mm of rain.
The town also exceeded the long-term average (29.3mm) that month with 48.6mm of rain.
The above average rainfall in April was welcome after Stawell endured a particularly dry start to the year with just 29mm of rain during the first three months of the year.
The wettest month of the year occurred in June when, according to the BOM, the town surpassed the monthly mean of 54.3mm to record 66mm of rain.
Stawell went close to recording average rainfall in May, but has fallen short in every other month this year.
The town's 2014 cumulative rainfall figure sits at a disappointing 235.8mm. That figure is less than the tally (315mm) to the same date last year and well below the long term average of 382.6mm.
The forecast isn't for it to get any wetter. The BOM is forecasting above average temperatures and below average rainfall to continue across our region for the rest of September.
Its outlook suggests drier conditions are more likely for many parts of southern Australia in early spring.
Across the three months of spring we are likely to see warmer than usual days and very likely to experience warmer than average nights.
The BOM forecasts just a 34.5 percent chance of Stawell recording its median rainfall figure of 141mm for the three months of spring.
BOM Senior Climatologist Dr Andrew Watkins said the season ahead looks warm and with El Nino still on the horizon a dry start is expected.
"The chance of El Nino developing in 2014 is around 50 percent, this is still double the normal chance so we're certainly not out of the woods yet," he said.
BOM receives temperature, humidity, wind, pressure, cloud and rainfall observations for Stawell from Stawell Aerodrome.