December 2011

RAINFALL

The whole of the Geelong-Bellarine-Otway Region had a below average rainfall in December, apart from a section of the Bellarine Peninsula which received some heavy fallsin storms occurring on the 10th and 11th. Over those days, Clifton Springs recorded 42 mm, Curlewis 39 mm, Drysdale 33 mm, Point Lonsdale 27 mm, Whittington 20 mm and Leopold 19 mm. The rest of the urban area missed out to a large extent.The urban area averaged only 22 mm for the month, about half of the average. Most of the heavy rains that deluged parts of the state north of Werribee, managed toby-pass most of the Geelong-Otways region. Despite the disappointing result, water catchments are still around 86% of capacity.

TEMPERATURE & OTHER FEATURES

The main feature of the temperatures was that overnight minimums were above average while maximums were normal, or perhaps lower. This conclusion has beenarrived at by Geelong Weather Services by comparing Racecourse AWS figures with Airport figures and deducting the 0.6 degree differential. Overall Geelong’sDecember temperatures seem to have been around just 0.3 degree C warmer than normal.There were only two days over 30 degrees; 35.2 C on the 31st was the highest. Lowest maximum was 17.0 C on the 4th.Highest overnight minimum was 19.2 C on the 9th, and the lowest was 6.8 C on the 5th.There were 4 thunder-days, but little rain was received in the area from those storms.A suspected tornado was photographed and reported by Clyve Herbert just west of Ballan on the 25th, together with hail 4 cm in diameter. For a complete summary of the year’s weather, please see the separate annual summary.

RAINFALL DATA

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