LOOKING back over winter it’s hard to reconcile the warm, dry winter Wangaratta has seen with what the community has experienced over the past week.
From mini-tornados, uprooted trees, record high winds and unexpected rainfall, Wangaratta residents have experienced what seems to be nature's last ditch effort to remind them that winter weather still has a sharp bite.
Despite recent extreme weather events, Wangaratta experienced its 25th driest August in the past century last month.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology's weather station at Wangaratta airport, the city recorded a total of 37.4mm of rainfall in August, coming in well below the historical mean (57.4mm) rainfall over the past 30 years.
Adding June (31.2mm) and July (47.6mm) rainfall brings winter's total to 116.2mm, which is well below the historical mean winter rainfall of 183.9mm.
Latest Stories
Despite the prolonged dry spell, the bureau recorded a whopping 20.2mm of rainfall on Monday, August 26 - the highest recorded rainfall in a singular day for this year's winter.
The lowest minimum temperature recorded last month in Wangaratta was -3.3 degrees and the highest minimum temperature recorded was 11.8 degrees, with a mean minimum temperature of 4.4 degrees, just above the historical mean minimum of 3 degrees.
The highest maximum temperature recorded at Wangaratta airport was 21.8 degrees and the lowest maximum temperature was 10.7 degrees, with a mean maximum temperature of 16.8 degrees - 2.3 degrees above the historical mean maximum of 14.5 degrees.
According to the bureau’s outlook, this month is shaping up to be a little wetter with a 45 per cent chance of above the historical median (47.5mm) rainfall.
Above average maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to very likely (60 per cent to greater than 80 per cent chance) across most of Australia.
