Rutherglen had its warmest start to April with 34.3 since 34 degrees on April 1, 1943. Wangaratta, with 32.7 degrees had its warmest start to April in 67 years.

Last month was the driest March on record at many places including Melbourne, which had its driest March in 183 years of records. Many places in our region had no rainfall at all. Deniliquin recorded zero rainfall. Other times when no rain fell in March at Deniliquin were in 1859, 1889, 1892, 1922, 1923, 1937, 1938, 1986, 1991 and 2003. Successive years when March rainfall was zero - 1922-23 and 1937-38 - may suggest March 2025 will be also very dry in our regions. The mean maximum temperature during March at Deniliquin was 31.3 degrees, nearly three degrees above normal, the hottest for March since 2016.

It was not as hot at Dubbo and Coonabarabran where maximums were just under two degrees above normal. Dubbo recorded 80 millimetres during March, the wettest for March since 2017. Roma, much further north, also recorded its wettest March with 152 millimetres since 169.6 in March 2017.

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Cairns recorded 890.6 millimetres in March, the wettest since 907 in March 2012. Other very high March rainfalls in Cairns were in 2006, 1967, 1959, 1945, 1940, 1935, 1911, 1899 and 1887. The recent very wet March in Cairns did follow very high rainfall last December. Out of the past high rainfalls in Cairns listed above, only March 1887 had very high rainfalls in the previous December. The year 1887 was generally a wet one in our region with high rainfall in April, during most of the winter and the last three months of that year.

Alice Springs recorded 222.6 millimetres during March, the wettest March since 357 in 1983. Other high March rainfalls at Alice Springs were in 1910, 1972, 1976 and 1988.

During the last few days a small complex low pressure with a warm frontal occulsion formed just west of Mount Gambier. It extended a narrow trough line well north and advected a very warm humid air mass from the Northern Territory, which had been saturated by the remnants of tropical cyclone Megan since the middle of March into Victoria.

Centre Island near Daly Waters recorded its heaviest March rain since 1985. At the beginning of April 1985 heavy to flood rains fell in the Western District of Victoria while the rest of Victoria escaped this heavy rain. Now at the beginning of this month heavy rain occurred in the Melbourne suburbs and in Gippsland. Melbourne with 53.2 millimetres and Scoresby with 71.2 to Tuesday morning both recorded their wettest April day since 1977. Wilsons Promontory recorded a two day total of 115 millimetres, its wettest two days in April since 1901. Wilsons Prom, like many other places in Victoria, recorded their driest February to March period in 155 years of records.

The heavy rain did not extend to other parts of Victoria. Bendigo itself had no rain after the driest February to March period on record and this followed the wettest-ever January in 162 years of records. Bendigo received 40 millimetres of rain on Monday, April 1. In 1870, February and March were also very dry after a wet January in Bendigo and consistently wet for the rest of that year.

Interestingly, April 1985 saw the highest April temperature since 1938 in Melbourne on Saturday, April 13, when the temperature reached 33.8 degrees. It was also the hottest day on record for any AFL match. Widespread rain fell during the third week of April 1985. The mild wet conditions did extend into May and early June.