Late last week very welcome heavy rains fell at most places in the western and southern districts of Victoria, and while rainfalls were generally from 30 to 75mms, they passed our regions except for an isolated fall of 26mms at Albury.
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Rainfall totals were generally five to ten millimetres from north east Victoria up to Wyalong then little or no rain up to the Queensland border.
The heaviest rains in western Victoria were 88mms at Meredith, 77mms at Blackwood and 75mms at Ballarat.
Along the coast in southern Victoria, 61mms fell at Aireys Inlet.
An unusual out-of-season, violent thunderstorm with large hail struck the Wonthaggi and Cape Patterson area on May 10.
This tropical-type storm moved very slowly NNW from Bass Strait and carpeted the beach with hail.
An estimated 125mms fell in two hours near Wonthaggi which had stopped recording rainfall and temperature a few months ago after keeping records for more than 100 years.
Further rain at Stawell after 68mms in one day early this month, has taken the May total to 102mms, the wettest for the first half of May in 154 years of records.
It is a big turnaround at Stawell after the driest January-to-April period this year since 1923.
An estimated 125mms fell in two hours near Wonthaggi which had stopped recording rainfall and temperature a few months ago ...
Much needed rainfall of 60mms fell at Orbost after an exceptionally dry April, following 89mms in March.
There was a similar rainfall pattern at Orbost in 1981 and many residents will not forget the very wet winter we had in 1981.
Two out-of-season tropical cyclones recently appeared on the synoptic weather charts with Cyclone Lilie north of Darwin in the Timor Sea and Cyclone Ann in the Coral Sea east of the North Queensland coast.
Both systems are relatively weak and, although Ann is now an ex-tropical cyclone, she could give some places possibly the heaviest May rains since 1983 in northern parts of Queensland.
There has been a notable fall in maximum temperatures across most inland areas of the nation since May 6, indicating not many days will be significantly warmer than normal across the next few weeks.