One particular outstation, Warburton, broke the previous March record of 43.5 degrees in 1986 on three successive days, 44.0 on March 8,  44.6 on March 9 then 44.8 on March 10.

To date this outback town is experiencing a very hot month with the mean maximum temperature of 41.0 degrees eight degrees above the long-term for March, and so far four degrees hotter than the hottest March on record of 38 in 1951, 1953 and 1954.

Marble Bar recorded its hottest March day on record with 47.4 on Sunday March 10, breaking the March 1932 record of 46.7.

Port Hedland 47.0, Onslow 47.2, Roebourne 48.1, Paraburdoo 45.7, Giles 43.0 and at Yulara 44.3 were all new record highs for March.

Both Roebourne and Marble Bar have had very high temperatures during each month since last December with a very similar occurrence in December 1997 to March 1998.

There was a somewhat similar temperature profile at both Alice Springs and Tennant Creek.

March 1998 saw very hot days during the second week and again about March 20 to 22.

That month was very dry, but from April 1998 onward heavy rain arrived in our areas and continued without a break until December 1998.

I was staying in Bendigo last weekend where it has been bone dry and very hot this year to date after a hotter and wetter-than-normal December.

A similar pattern occurred in 1887, 1903, 1908 and 2014.

Three of these 1887, 1903 and 2014 did see significant rainfalls about March 27 in our regions and again about April 10.

For 1908 there was very little rain before May in our regions but fortunately the summer of 1907-1908 was not excessively hot and dry like this summer at both Alice Springs and Marble Bar. In addition there was heavy rain at both places in February 1908.

As a postscript Moree, in north-western NSW has had its driest summer in 139 years of records and the hottest since the summer of 1881-1882.