Victor Szwed
Autumn has ended suddenly with a double blast of cold weather. Snow has been forecast down to 600 metres and maximums of 6 to 9 degrees are expected for the coming week. What comes next?
A week before the cold blasts we had some nice sun rises and cool but dry weather. How do you rate the Autumn overall? It seems that we didn’t have many of the really nice, mild, sunny autumn days. However, this is not unusual.
Once the rain cleared on the 1st of June we had a heavy frost on Thursday morning. A reminder to park our cars under cover or cover the windscreen if you need to use your car early next morning. Regular frost on your windscreen affects rubber windscreen wipers causing them to deteriorate more quickly.
It is also worth cleaning your windscreen with a cleaning agent this time of the year as water spray from the roads can bring up oils and other grime that wipers cannot clear easily. Driving at night with a windscreen that is not clear can be hazardous. If you know how to, top up your windscreen wiper water reservoir with water and a cleaning agent.
For May the Bureau recorded 53.2mm of rain for Daylesford, much of it in the last six days. The long-term May average is 64.3mm. To the end of May we have had 313.8mm, well above the average of 200.4mm.
The Bureau of Meteorology expects that winter will be wetter than normal with cooler days. Night-time temperatures are expected to be higher than average. The Snowfields are expected to have some good falls to recover from the difficulties they had because of COVID restrictions over the past two years.
Daylesford’s water supplies are at 81% full, similar to a month ago. Hepburn and Bullarto reservoirs are full while Wombat is 73% full. With winter rains, Wombat reservoir is likely to fill quickly.
Victor Szwed is a local resident who contributes a regular weather column to The Wombat Post.
