MARCH across Ballarat had more rain, more rainy days and was colder than usual, but the good news is the weather systems that brought the deluge throughout the month appear to be a thing of the past.
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The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared the La Nina event which brought widespread rain to much of Australia's eastern seaboard has gone, but in its wake it has left record rain total, many in excess of 200mm throughout the country.
In Ballarat, we only caught the tail end of the huge rain event which poured on New South Wales and Gippsland, but it still meant the city received about 14mm more than usual for the month.
Officially Ballarat received 55.6mm for the month, up on the 41.8mm, but interestingly there were 16 wet days out of 31, almost double the long-term average.
It also meant that days were generally cooler than what we can expect for the month with average temperatures at just 21.1 degree, 1.5 degrees lower than usual.
The unusual condition also meant we do not manage a day about 30 degrees, incredibly rare for this time of year, with the top temperature coming in at just 28.5 on April 12.
Our wettest day was March 22 when 16mm fell, 13.2mm fell on March 14 with those two rain events the driver of the wetter than usual month and proving a nightmare for sporting organisations who wanted to complete their seasons.
Senior Climatologist Dr Naomi Benger said in recent weeks, the bureau's climatologists have noted a steady decline in La Nina indicators in the Pacific Ocean, with the La Nina/El Nino outlook now re-set to inactive.
While climate modelling shows few signs of a second La Nina or El Nino development for the foreseeable future, it is predicted that April could see greater than usual rain again in some parts of the country, but it is expected the south will return to a more normal April pattern.
"We're forecasting above-average rainfall to continue into April for northern parts of Australia," she said.
Dr Benger said that, as La Nina recedes, secondary drivers of weather, such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation will begin to play a larger role in influencing rainfall.
"The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) moving through the tropics is expected to increase cloudiness and rainfall in far northern Australia over the next week or two. This also brings an increased risk of tropical low or tropical cyclone activity," she said.
This atmospheric factor will be a likely driver in above-average rainfall and potential tropical activity in the first few weeks of April across far-northern Australia, even as early as the Easter long weekend.
