During the past week there have been extraordinary weather events across the nation.
It started Monday night with a concave shaped frontal system linked with two separate low centres over inland WA, bringing Perth its wettest November day on record with 40.4mms, almost all of which fell in just two hours in Perth.
Across to the Central Wheatbelt record daily rainfalls for November were at Dalwallina, 37.8mms and Buntine 49mms due to thunderstorm activity with hail which damaged the wheat crops almost ready for harvest.
Another inland low soon approached the Alice Springs area with widespread thunderstorms and by 9am November 10 Alice Springs recorded 100.2mms, easily its wettest November day in 143 years of records.
Alice Springs' monthly total has now reached 196mms, well above the previous wettest November of 139mms in 1920.
It was most unusual for Alice Springs to receive more than 100mms in 24 hours before mid-December. All previous such cases of over 100mms in Alice Springs have occurred from the third week of December (in 1975) to the end of March (in 1988).
Another separate inland low pressure developed over western Queensland, also with scattered thunderstorm activity. Some places had large hail.
A phenomenal 353mms fell in 24 hours at Samuel Hill Resort, south of Mackay along the coast. Rainfalls of this magnitude in a 24-hour period have never occurred along this region before December 15 in the past 130 years and are more common January to March.
The previous highest daily total for November was 165mms in 1917 at Pacific Heights near Marlborough.
Byfield near Yeppoon received 158.8mms, also a daily record for November. This town had a record 550mms on March 17 this year.
Roma had a further 47mms by 9am Wednesday, taking the month's total to 142mms.
It is a safe bet that when Roma's November rainfall exceeds 100mms, we will have a lot of rainfall in the coming months up to March next year.
Charleville has now received 102mms, its wettest November since 2007 while Miles received 78mms on Monday November 8, its wettest November day since 109mms in 1917.
The summer of 1917-18 was very wet from Victoria to Queensland with further heavy rain in Victoria in March 1918 and May 1918.
A tropical cyclone flattened Mackay in January of 1918.
Another area of rain formed early this week over the Eyre Peninsula. Ceduna recorded 39mms to 9am Thursday November 11, the town's wettest November day in 119 years of records.
Currently a low centre over western NSW with a warm front is approaching, but the rainfall looks like it will be variable with isolated heavy falls by Saturday November 13 in our region.
We are long overdue for a hot day of 30 degrees or more this spring season, although it came close on November 2 with 29 degrees.
Spring seasons with the highest temperature failing to reach 30 occurred in both 1971 and 1992 in Wangaratta.
The longer weather records at Rutherglen show both the springs of 1916 and 1917 also failed to record a hot day with 30 degrees or more.
We could end up with the coldest November since 1917.
