April 2005

RAINFALL

Another month of low rainfall has been experienced right across the Geelong region. The urban area received only 14 mm compared with the monthly average of 41.6mm. Some outer areas like Moriac, Barwon Heads, Clifton Springs and the You Yangs recorded between 15mm and 20mm, but even Weeaproinah in the Otways, the wettest farming area in Victoria, only managed to record 85mm, and its long-term April average is 158mm.

Does all this spell a drought? It is possible since a weak El Nino has formed in the Pacific, but to have the three months of autumn all with very low rainfalls is not common around here, even in a drought. So maybe we can look forward to better rains in May.

The Otway water catchments now stand at 61%, better than last year’s 44% at this time.

TEMPERATURE

April was much warmer than normal. After the previous five months all cooler than the long-term average, April ended up being 1.6 degrees C warmer than the mean of 15.2C. This was the warmest April since 1968 when the mean temperature was 17.4C. Geelong had 5 days over 30 degrees which is a record for April, surpassing 4 days in 1980.

OTHER

There were 4 very windy days with gusts over 60kph; the maximum gust at Mt Duneed was 93kph on the 3rd. Local fogs and dew were recorded on several days in different suburbs and there was one thunder day (10th) but no severe storms.

RAINFALL DATA