(Most figures are from the Bureau of Meteorology station at Mount Duneed – called “Geelong AP AWS”, and averages from 1983-2007) Month Weather Conditions Temps (deg C) Rainfall (mm) Cumulative Rainfall Comments JAN Hotter by 1.8 deg. Highest 40.6C on 10th. 6 days >30C. 2 very windy days >60kph. Highest 70kph at Mt D on 11th. No severe storms.…
Category: 2008
December 2008
RAINFALL Heavy rains on the 12th-13th brought up the monthly totals to well above average for most of the Geelong-Bellarine-Otways region.Rainfalls ranged from 60 mm to 95 mm through Geelong (long-term average 39) to over 213 mm at Weeaproinah (average 113) and 115 mm at the West Barwon Dam (average 73), but only maintaining catchment levels at a fairly meagre…
November 2008
RAINFALL The drought continues. Geelong has this year only received 62% of its normal 11-monthly rainfall. Just 280 mm has fallen in the city since Januaryand the situation is similar across most of the region, including the Otways water catchment which now stands at 27% of capacity, indicating aperilous summer ahead. Rain fell on 11 days despite promising forecasts and…
October 2008
RAINFALL October was Geelong’s third driest month of a very dry year to date, adding just 11 mm to the progressive total. In what ought to be our wettest month, most areas within the district only registered around 20-30% of normal rainfall. Urban Geelong’s rain for the year now totals just 251 mm, which is less than half of the…
September 2008
RAINFALL “Another disappointing rainfall result for Geelong,” was how Geelong Weather Services’ Lindsay Smail described September’s poor result. “Geelong received only around 30 mm which is 60% of the average”, he commented, adding that Otway catchments also suffered with a similar proportion of rain falling there. Across the urban area totals varied from 13.5 mm at Lara to 34.2 mm…
August 2008
RAINFALL August’s rainfall across the region generally ranged between 85-110% of the long term average. The urban area received around 40 mm compared to the long-term average 43.5 mm. The Otway catchments received almost average rain and the capacity has marginally risen to 31%, from 26% at the start of the month. Despite the higher rainfalls in July, winter as…
July 2008
RAINFALL Rainfall was about 25-30% above average for July. But published rainfall averages for Geelong are very misleading. The Bureau of Meteorology publishes at least two different average figures for Geelong: 41.9mm in the daily paper and 52.9mm on the internet, so we at Geelong Weather Services use the last 30 years composite data for the urban area which is…
June 2008
RAINFALL “Disastrous” is the best word to describe Geelong’s six-monthly rainfall from January to June this year. With just 116mm recorded in the urban area Geelong has had less than 50% of its 6-monthly average of 240mm. This is the worst start to a rainfall year since 1967, when only 98mm was received, and our second lowest January to June…
May 2008
RAINFALL In what has now become something more serious than a joke, Geelong’s monthly rain once again – for the fifth month on end – has fallen below average. Across the urban area the totals were around 34 mm on 12 rain days, well short of the average 45 mm. West Barwon Dam received 64 mm, just over half the…
April 2008
RAINFALL Geelong suffered a terribly disappointing rainfall result in April, with a total of only between 4 and 12 mm falling across the urban area. It was the driest April since 1997 when 4 mm fell. The lowest was zero in 1923 and the current monthly average is 40 mm. The strange thing to notice however, is that rain was…
March 2008
RAINFALL Geelong urban area recorded around a disappointing 20mm for March compared to the average 30mm. Rain fell on an average 10 days – mainly in the final week – and the largest fall was 10.4mm by 9am on the 27th at Mt Duneed. The Otways catchments fared better with totals around the March average; Mt Sabine recording 80mm and…
February 2008
RAINFALL Most of the Geelong district, except for the northwest from Ballarat to Melbourne CBD which was particularly dry, experienced around 80% of average rainfall for February. Normally one of our driest months (average 32 mm), this one was no exception with urban Geelong recording just 29 mm. An exception was the district of Dereel, which, thanks to heavy thunderstorms,…
January 2008
RAINFALL For most of the immediate Geelong region in the last month rainfall has been in the bottom 10% of all January rainfalls over the last 160 years. Geelong’s driest January was in 1878 when no rain fell. This January Geelong received around 8mm, and the January average is around 40mm. Further afield, to the south and west, the situation…