Further heavy rain has fallen in Queensland since May 10 and this extended into NSW to as far south as Forbes.
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Charters Towers recorded 122.8mm to last Wednesday morning, May 11, and this was easily the wettest ever May day in 140 years of records.
This month's rainfall total at Charters Towers has reached 215mm and this is to date is almost double the previous record wet May of 1968, when 128mm was recorded.
The town of Seventeen Seventy recorded a deluge of 184mm to Friday morning, May 13 - its wettest May day since 1996, when 188mm fell on May 2, 1996. Major floods occurred around these two locations. Major floods also occurred around Warwick, which last Friday, May 13, had 69mm, its wettest May day for 107 years. Warwick has now had 585mm this year - the fourth wettest since 1867, when 816mm fell to the end of May.
Last December, there was a most unusual rainfall difference between Cape Otway and at Gabo Island. Looking at the past records, which go back to 1860, there was only one other year when this happened. This was back in 1866.
St. George, with a three-day rainfall total of 178mm and Emerald, with a three day total of 133mm, both had their wettest three days in May since 1983. Last Friday, May 13, Roma recorded 39mm, Moree recorded 39.2mm, recording their wettest May day since 1991. Mungindi on the same day recorded 64mm and this was the town's wettest ever May day in 135 years of records. In Coonabarabran, 30.8mm was the wettest May day for 10 years. The month's rainfall has reached 82.5mm - the wettest May so far for 22 years.
The monthly rainfalls this year at Coonabarabran showed a wet January and a relatively dry February, followed by the three autumn months being significantly wetter than average. There has been only one other time when this rainfall pattern occurred in Coonabarabran in the last 143 years. That was in 1891, which did turn out to be a very wet year not only in Coonabarabran but at many other places in the Eastern States. The two other cases, which were somewhat similar, occurred in 1893 and 1963. All three, 1891, 1893 and 1963, saw a very wet winter in Victoria and some Melbourne suburbs had Yarra River floods.
Night time minimum temperatures for the first half of May have continued the above normal trend, which began in January, with readings at most places in the Albury-Wodonga region being two to three degrees above normal for May. Very few places have had a couple of days of frosts this month. Currently, an upper level feature with a surface low pressure is forming just west of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Heavy rain of over 100mm has fallen at Onslow the last two days. This new development is likely to lead to the next significant rain event by around May 26 in the Albury-Wodonga region.