Victor Szwed
After almost three months of drier than normal weather, what a difference one rain event can make! On Friday 29th of January my rain gauge showed 95mm. The Bureau (BOM) shows 77.2mm falling. How much did your rain gauge show?
Overall for January, BOM readings indicate that Daylesford had around 99mm of rainfall compared to the long-term mean of 46mm. My readings total around 120mm.
Gardeners would have appreciated that most of the rain last Friday was steady and spread over the day. This meant much of it could soak into the ground providing relief for plants and also improving ground moisture to keep things going.
Because the Weather Bureau registers rainfall for the 24 hours to 9am on a particular day as that day’s rainfall, they show only 13.2mm on the 29th. The local recording station data was then not updated until 3rd February and shows a further 64mm but entered on 3rd February. I include that as January’s rainfall.
The Bureau was forecasting 25 to 45mm for Daylesford on Friday 5th. However as of Friday morning, it looks like it would be less. Temperatures were expected to continue to be mild to cool for the coming days. La Nina has peaked, however will continue to influence the weather for the next 3 months.
This remarkably cool to mild summer period is unusual. For many, it is a relief. The Bureau expects maximum temperatures to continue to be lower than average.
When we have cooler weather in Summer people tend not to go to the coast as much and our visitor levels usually increase compared to hot weather periods. Add to this the travel restrictions interstate and overseas and we are experiencing very high visitor numbers. This is a point for discussion and debate in our community as there are varying views about the impacts of tourism.
