FOR those concerned about a harsh fire season, Ballarat’s saturated January has brought some relief.
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The region received 79 millimetres of rain in January – double the average for the month.
Almost half the rain fell in a single event on January 14 and helped make it the wettest month since last June, with more rain falling in a summer month than in the past three months together.
The soggy summer adds to a increasing pattern in Ballarat over the past decade in which a larger proportion of the annual rainfall falls in the traditionally drier months.
January has brought the season’s total rainfall to a healthy 90mm, already well above last year’s total of 52mm. The long-term average since 1908 is 133 mm.
The other notable element of Ballarat’s summer has been the unusually cool final week of the month. This has brought January 2015 level with the monthly average minimum and maximum temperatures of 11 and 25 degrees respectively.
Weatherzone meteorologist Max Gonzalez said the heavy rainfall was the result of an out-of-season trough.
“We’ve seen a near-stationary trough in eastern Australia that has provided instability and very moist, warm, northerly winds,” he said.
He said the cool weather was set to hang around until the end of next week.
david.jeans@fairfaxmedia.com.au