Anyone who looked out their window at the weekend might find this hard to believe and we can guarantee you this is not an April Fools Day prank, but Ballarat has just gone through its driest ever start to the year in recorded history.
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Even though Ballarat received 8.8mm of rain at the weekend, it still fell below what was needed to avoid an all time record for the first three months of the year.
Since the start of January just 32mm has fallen, officially 0.6 of a milimetre below the all time record of 32.6mm set in 1965.
The month just completed also proved to be warmer than normal, although it fell short of setting an all time heat record.
March averaged 24.6 degrees, two degrees up on the annual average of 22.6 degrees.
It is also the third consecutive month this year that the average temperature has been up on usual, February averaged 26.7 degrees up from 25.4 while January set an all time heat record, averaging 30.8 up from 25.5 degrees.
The top temperature recorded for the month was back on March 1 at 35.5 degrees which was the first of four consecutive days above 30 to start the month.
In all there were six days where the mercury climbed above 30, double the expected amount of three days.
The coolest day was on Saturday just gone where we topped out at 13.3 degrees, while the wettest day occurred on the last day of the month with 6.8mm falling.
The coldest night was back on March 7 when the temperature fell to 1.7 degrees, however six of the last seven nights have dropped below 10 degrees, showing that while it might be a bit warmer than usual still, winter is not far away.
Bureau of Meteorology Senior forecaster Dean Stewart said Ballarat stood out as being one of the driest areas in the state.
"Melbourne's had the fourth driest start to the year on record, but Ballarat is the highest," he said.
"While there is no strong indicator of lower than average rain over the next few months, there is an increased risk of El Nino.
"While it is not always exact, autumn is the time of the year where an El Nino is likely to form and generally that means lower than average rainfall on the east coast of Australia."
The coolest day was on Saturday just gone where we topped out at 13.3 degrees, while the wettest day occurred on the last day of the month with 6.8mm falling.
The coldest night was back on March 7 when the temperature fell to 1.7 degrees, however six of the last seven nights have dropped below 10 degrees, showing that while it might be a bit warmer than usual still, winter is not far away.
BALLARAT'S DRIEST EVER STARTS TO THE YEAR
- 2019 32.0mm
- 1965 32.6mm
- 1980 33.2mm
- 1986 33.6mm
In April, the average temperature that can be expected is 18.2 degrees with 51.3mm of rain.
However the first week of the month looks dry once again with no more rain expected in the gauge until at least Friday with temperatures climbing to as high as 26 degrees.
After a cold night tonight, cloud will roll in, meaning temperatures at night will hover in the mid teens for much of the week.
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