Last weekend was noteworthy for extreme weather events across the nation.
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An active front swept over south-east Australia, bringing near-record strong winds over Tasmania and Victoria with wind gusts exceeding 130km/h at some exposed places.
Before this very active change, there were very high temperatures in Victoria on the Saturday, and very high temperatures on the Sunday in NSW where Forbes recorded its hottest March day since 1940 and the third-hottest since 1881.
Along the NSW coast, many places recorded over 40 degrees, the hottest in March since 1983 and Sydney's 38.4 was its hottest for late March since 1940.
Devastating fires occurred in Western Victoria, and at Tathra near Bega, both of which have been very dry after missing the heavy December rains.
Following the active front, unprecedented snow fell in Tasmania on March 19 which was also unusually cold at some places in the early morning in southern Victoria.
Tropical cyclone Marcus which brought heavy rain to Darwin before last weekend, has moved well west of the Pilbara region, setting up a very hot spell in both the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia.
Maximum temperatures have reached 44 degrees at Mardie and 43 degrees at Roebourne the past three days, almost a record for late March, and several degrees higher than the highest temperature recorded during the past three summer months at both these places.
A very strong high pressure system, moving towards Tasmania, the central pressure of 1040mbs a near-record high for March, will ensure more warm to hot dry days for most of the period up to the second week of April except for some rainfall anticipated close to or just after this weekend.
The second week of April is anticipated to see much-needed rainfalls in our areas.
For some time I have observed a dreaded 33-year cycle of very bad fires in Victoria and this past summer was directly in line with those fires which occurred in 1886, 1919, 1952 and 1985.
The Black Thursday fires of February 6, 1851 skipped the 33-year cycle but returned with the Ash Wednesday fires of February 16, 1983.
Then on Christmas Day, 2015 there was a repeat of the Ash Wednesday fires over the Otway ranges district which did in late 2015 have its driest spring since 1897.
There were also fires in Cressy in February 1944, and 1977 which devastated the town.
When we were fortunate to get heavy rain in early and late December and again in late January it appears that we would escape.
The fire danger will now be very high over Easter and early April.