There was a notably dry strip however, extending from Broome, Port Hedland and Marble Bar across into the Northern Territory to Tennant Creek and Alice Springs and almost to Wilcannia.

Broome has had only 233mms this year to the end of September, the driest since 122mms in 1992. It has also been very dry at Marble Bar with only 267mms to the end of September this year.

Previous dry first nine months of any year at these places often occurred when the year turned out to be much wetter than average in the eastern states like 1892, 1924, 1958, 1975, 1981, 1992-93 and 1995.

The latest maximum temperature map for September for the whole of Australia showed maximum temperatures generally were a degree above normal for September.

A large area of one to 1.5 degrees below normal covered the inland part of WA and a smaller region of below normal maxima extended from about Griffith north to Mungindi on the Queensland border.

An area around Townsville which had its coldest September for 10 years was a surprise after Townsville had its warmest July in 114 years.

Many residents in NE Victoria have complained about the coldest winter weather they had endured for a long time, but the records did show temperatures were close to normal.

It could be the result of lack of sunshine. The sunshine recording station at Lake Eildon showed only 47.5 hours of sunshine during June, 44.4 hours during July and 102.8 hours in August. This is actually much worse than Melbourne's most sunless winter which happened in 1952.

A 48-hour deluge swamped the Otway Ranges in southern Victoria during the last day of September and the first day of October. Benwarren recorded 189mms, Mt Cowley 224mms and Mt Sabine 202mms with floods all the way along the Barwon to Geelong.

This was the biggest deluge to hit the Otways this time of year since 1916 and the biggest overall since June 1952. Both 1916 and 1952 were very wet years in Victoria and Tasmania.

The current synoptic charts show a development of an active heat low over northern Australia with many stations recording just over 40 degrees, well above normal for October. It will be a while before some of this above-normal warmth filters into our region; probably not until just after mid-month.

Broome had its warmest September night on record days ago; the previous record warm September nights were in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1995.

After a relatively wet start to October not that much rainfall is expected up to the third week of this month.

The fourth week of this month looks certain to be very wet indeed with heavy rain and thunderstorms arriving on about October 24, then more heavy rain during the first week of November.