THE end of summer in Ballarat is usually a time for doom and gloom about the upcoming long winter months to come, but this year the end of summer will be met with joy.
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Putting it bluntly, it's good riddance to a season that rarely reached any warm highs, contributed to arguably the worst fires we've ever seen in some parts of the state, struck us with dry lightning, saw more than 200mm from storms fall in some parts of the region in the matter of hours - while other nearby areas remained bone dry - and generally produced grey and miserable weather throughout.
Only once did Ballarat sneak above 40 degrees but that was way back on December 20, a day which saw the all time temperature record for that month fall.
READ MORE: The hottest December day ever
By a long way that was our hottest day. Eventually, the city topped out at 43.5 degrees which started two serious bushfires that briefly threatened towns including Lexton and Lethbridge.
The warmest period of the summer was a two-week run from December 17 to 30 where only once did our maximum temperature fall below the average for the month.
This contributed to December being 3.2 degrees hotter than usual, coming in at an average of 26 degrees.
The extreme start to the summer saw the coldest day of the season also registered - when the mercury hit just 11.7 degrees on December 2 - slightly higher than the all time lowest maximum of 10.9 degrees, set in 2013.
In January we were pretty consistent temperature wise, but that month was categorised by some incredible storms.
While officially 70mm fell in the month in Ballarat - which is just under the monthly average - some areas including Burrumbeet recorded more than 200mm, and most of that occurred on one night on January 19.
Incredibly, that night saw some weather gauges hit 235mm as a combination of westerly winds meeting north-easterly winds created a vortex which had its epicentre just 15km west of Ballarat. The storms lasted more than three hours, but amazingly, while 20mm fell at Ballarat Airport, the rest of the city remained dry.
Officially the wettest day of the season was three days later when the Ballarat gauge recorded 22mm as another storm front blew in.
Of course as is tradition, the first few days of school proved to be hot, but as soon as the calendar turned to February, the temperature dropped and the grey clouds rolled in.
February recorded an average temperature of 23.6 degrees, almost two degrees lower than the usual 25.4. The hottest day of the month was on Sunday February 23 where we hit 31.6 degrees, the only time we recorded a maximum above 30.
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