A complex low, centred over the southern part of Western Australia, has produced record daily rainfalls for August.
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Daily records were broken at Albany, 81mm and Esperance, 54.4mm, to 9am Tuesday, August 4. Records at both places go back to 1877 and 1883 respectively.
A second active complex low is sitting in the Bass Strait and has brought widespread snowfalls to Tasmania and Victoria and very low maximum temperatures for August.
Wilsons Promontory recorded a maximum temperature of only 7.4 degrees on Tuesday, August 4. This was the coldest day for early August since the 7.2 degrees recorded on August 4, 1943, at the Prom. Other very cold August days were in 1951 and 1974.
Those past episodes did not bring much satisfaction to Victoria for the rest of August - they were among the coldest Augusts on record.
There was heavy rain late in both August of 1951 and 1974 in North East Victoria as well.
The complex low over southern WA is becoming a cut-off system and is moving across inland South Australia and will bring some moderate rainfalls to the Albury-Wodonga region by August 8.
August 1970 was a bitterly cold month in Victoria, NSW and in Tasmania as well.
This system may move into the Tasman Sea and become yet another east coast low and may amalgamate with the Bass Strait complex low, which would be later this week situated near New Zealand.
Hobart last month recorded its driest July for 10 years and the seventh driest dating back to 1850 but currently heavy rain is occurring. This followed 60 successive days where maximum temperatures failed to reach 16 degrees - the longest such spell in any winter at Hobart since 1970.
August 1970 was a bitterly cold month in Victoria, NSW and in Tasmania as well. September 1970 was also much colder than normal, as was October 1970 to some extent.
As far as rainfall was concerned, there were widespread heavy falls during the fourth week of August and the fourth week of September.
Roseworthy, north of Adelaide, recorded minus 3.6 degrees on Wednesday, August 5, and this was the town's lowest ever temperature in 111 years of records. Nearby Snowtown recorded minus 4.1 - a new record low for August.
Places in the Murray and Riverlands, like Renmark and Loxton, recorded minus 4 to minus 5 resulting in widespread frost damage. Swan Hill recorded minus 3.8, which is a new record low for August.