Becoming hot then a low developing with possible showers and storms: January 3-

[Lucia]

wow 5000 litres is extremely low, $700 is still way cheaper than water rates and beautiful rainwater the majority of the time is such a plus. We don't think we would accept town water if offered to hook up now, after 42 years we manage pretty well. It was more of a problem when the children were at home.5 loads for $700 is about par with what we would be required to pay if bought, and we have the same capacity 75000 litres, but our beautiful garden loves it in the summer and in periods of dryness it goes down rapidly.

[Lucia]

Vic rainfall deciles for 2024 tell the story - you can clearly see the reasonable rain for Melbourne's eastern suburbs, vs the poor year for the likes of Lighthouse and me.



Things would have been even more dire for parts of the south-west coast, were it not for some good December rain.



Meanwhile, as hillybilly says, progs are jumping all over the place for rainfall Sunday-Tuesday. If you don't like what you see, just wait a few hours for the next run

Well those rainfall deciles are incorrect for us Lilydale, we were 100mls above average, 995mls.

[hillybilly]

Nasty numbers around Melbourne. Curious that Olympic park is once again strangely cool. It is a cooler location, but suspicion is that irrigation of sports grounds is lowering temperatures in hot days. You can see this in the dewpoint which is higher than surrounding stations.

Down here a humid murky day. Topped out at 22C then scored a thunderstorm. That wasn’t on the forecast. Not a lot in it for most parts, but has been heavy in the northern burbs of Hobart with spot falls near 20mm.

Rainy day coming up tomorrow. Could be locally 10-25mm for parts of Victoria. Looks lighter down here, but big spread on the models.

[hillybilly]

Vic rainfall deciles for 2024 tell the story - you can clearly see the reasonable rain for Melbourne's eastern suburbs, vs the poor year for the likes of Lighthouse and me.



Things would have been even more dire for parts of the south-west coast, were it not for some good December rain.



Meanwhile, as hillybilly says, progs are jumping all over the place for rainfall Sunday-Tuesday. If you don't like what you see, just wait a few hours for the next run

Well those rainfall deciles are incorrect for us Lilydale, we were 100mls above average, 995mls.

Average goes from decile 4 to decile 6, so no mismatch. Within the area you will get spots falls higher and lower.

Down here we were similarly about 100mm above average but also sat in the average band.

[stevco123]

Nasty numbers around Melbourne. Curious that Olympic park is once again strangely cool. It is a cooler location, but suspicion is that irrigation of sports grounds is lowering temperatures in hot days. You can see this in the dewpoint which is higher than surrounding stations.

Down here a humid murky day. Topped out at 22C then scored a thunderstorm. That wasn’t on the forecast. Not a lot in it for most parts, but has been heavy in the northern burbs of Hobart with spot falls near 20mm.

Rainy day coming up tomorrow. Could be locally 10-25mm for parts of Victoria. Looks lighter down here, but big spread on the models.

I'm actually glad that area gives a true representation of the temperature in the CBD. Geelong was 36 and Essendon 39, so 38 for the CBD site is pretty spot on (although irrigation may play a very small part).
I am curious though (and am genuinely asking instead of being my rebellious self), we all know temperatures at the old site were heavily affected by the buildings not allowing cooler winds between the late 1990s until the new site openes. Is someone at BoM looking at potentially homogenising that data set as i do believe that a lot of the increase in average temps for Melbourne is due to that 20 year period. There were several days, especially in winter, when melbourne cbd was the warmest in the state which was obviously inaccurate. That hardly happens with the new site.
I know the temperature is accurate at a particular site according to its surroundings, but it is very unfair to say that Melbourne has warmed by x degrees when in reality it is probably a lot less.

[QldTwister]

Ripper weekend for heat lovers,
Beaches packed, rivers, dams, lakes busy, pool parties, BBQs, sitting outside till after midnight chatting, watching movies, fun in the pool its being awesome couple days and cloud once again capped temps getting into the low to mid 40s for many

Still ripper night only left the beach about 11pm just so nice out there mid high 20s light winds if any few spits too

Soaking rain for many tomorrow, most should see 10-20mm and much cooler too but thankfully quick warm up

Warm to hot and humid late week and into weekend wth storms on ranges more widespread on Sunday then maybe cooler but still warm start for the Open

Loving this summer keep it coming but with more storms

[StratoBendigo]

Round one delivered 4mm. More coming going by the radar. Possibly 10mm+

[hillybilly]

Good to see the rain across Victoria this morning. Mostly light so far, but will thicken up. Widespread 10-25mm by this time tomorrow.

Stevco, Essendon is nearly 70m higher elevation but was near a degree hotter. You would have expected something close to 40C based on Essendon and other metro sites. Geelong is nearly 100km away so hardly relevant. Pretty clear the obs were again 1 to 2C cooler compared to neighbours and dew point were higher.

City sites aren’t used in Australia for anything related to climate change, and are really difficult to adjust because so many factors impact on them. Regardless, we’ve got millions of temperature data which show about 1.5C of warming since the 1800s, and satellite data which are independent are showing even hotter conditions recently so not much that a single weather station is going to add.

[Macedonian]

Unfortunately it looks like another East Coast event. Finished the year at Aireys Inlet with about a third less rainfall than average, 450mm compared to an average of 625mm. That’s nearly the same rainfall deficit as the year before, making two exceptionally dry years. The December temperature average was 2.8C above average, November was similar. That’s crazy. The entire West of Victoria is looking at risk from bushfire, as one of Australia’s remaining ecological treasures, the Grampians, continues to be razed. We are going to need to good fortune to get through summer with no rain in the outlook. The very last thing we need is more heat.

A bushfire is good for the bush. An ecological treasure will become even better after this.

Not actually always true. Go and look at the devestation around the northern blue mts/Wollemi wilderness after a couple of really bad bushfire events that happened within a few years if each other, the last one being the cataclysmic Gospers Mountain fire at the end of 2019. Large tracts of mountain forests around and to the north of Lithgow are still a moonscape even after five years.
I've seen those areas burn numerous times in my almost 60years and it always used to come back. Not this time.
I suspect Gariwerd will suffer the same fate if it keeps having intense fire after fire. Stuck out there in baking hot western Victoria with a low av rainfall. It doesnt bode well.

[Gordon]

20mm here so far and still bucketing down. Bloody good start to 2025 after our rainfall-starved 2024.

[Macedonian]

Has anyone noticed or can someone tell me why it is that on the ABC weather report after the evening news we are consantly seeing confusion with the Melbourne temps?
For example last night when the showed the state maximums Melbourne was 38° then when it went to the national temps it said 41° for Melbourne's max.
Every single night it's out by about 3°
Another thing I've noticed is that what they actually say doesn't actually match what's displayed on the screen. For example they might say "Highest temp in Victoria today was 38° recorded at Ouyen and Midura" but the screen will show 39° in Wangaratta. Is it just human error? It happens a lot.
And what's happened to the new weather person, can't remember their name but they started presenting a while back.


Lovely rain here this morning after an absolutely hideous weekend. God I hate summer. I find that sort of weather impossible to enjoy.

[Gordon]

Can't help with ABC... except to make the generalisation that reporting quality of all sorts (across all media) tends to decline over the Christmas/ New Year period - fewer staff on duty and less experienced. Saw an ABC report a few days ago about that poor bugger lost near Geehi, and it talked about searching along the Kosciuszko River!

Meanwhile, hope the Grampians are getting some of this? Surrounding towns on all sides have had 10mm plus, but DEWLP's temporary Mt Willian gauge is only showing about 5mm so far

[dazrain]

wonder with big bushfires the extreme heat evaporates a lot of the ground water and gives a lower than realistic reading in the gauges?

ie when the rain hits the treetops it hits with normal intensity but that rapidly drops as it descends through the fire area.

[Macedonian]

Can't help with ABC... except to make the generalisation that reporting quality of all sorts (across all media) tends to decline over the Christmas/ New Year period - fewer staff on duty and less experienced. Saw an ABC report a few days ago about that poor bugger lost near Geehi, and it talked about searching along the Kosciuszko River!

Meanwhile, hope the Grampians are getting some of this? Surrounding towns on all sides have had 10mm plus, but DEWLP's temporary Mt Willian gauge is only showing about 5mm so far

It's been happening for ages, Gordon.
Not just the recent holiday period.
And yes, the quality of reporting on news items and articles is getting worse all the time.

Still pouring here. Hope it keeps going!

[StratoBendigo]

Just on 10mm for the event now. Very welcome.

[WeatherViewer]

Just over 27mm on my PWS here in Truganina, approx 23 km directly west of the CBD. Looks like I was in the sweet spot today!

[Dane]

22mm's since 7am when the rain started very welcome after a very dry 2024.
It was the 3rd driest year on record at Ballarat Airport with 442.2mm's - Ave 685.6mm's.
Only drier years were 301.8mm's in 2006 and 435.2mm's in 1982.
I recorded 471.3mm's in 2024 here in Sebastopol my 6 year average is 726.6mm's.
I recorded rain on 158 days last year but only 8 days had more than 10mm's.

[Lighthouse]

A very welcome 17mm at Fairhaven, not as good as the central areas but much better than the South West coast. It’s been about five weeks between drinks, hopefully the next follow-up is much sooner. I’m with you Macedonian, not a fan of the heat, what do people enjoy about it exactly, I was in the city yesterday and it was a ghost town, presumably everyone was huddled inside with the air-cons blasting.

[Wilko]

18mm
Water tank was empty so just in time

[Macedonian]

I've had 33mm at Mt Macedon. Very very welcome. This time yesterday it was 30° , today it 9°! So refreshing.
I had 915.5mm for 2024. That's about 100 below average but still very reasonable considering how low it was elsewhere in the state.
At work in Macedon we only had 582mm, that's about 200mm below average. Not good.

I'm on tank water here as well. I have 30000L storage under the house. The lowest they have ever been was about half empty in 2019.
Most of the year they are running over.
We would have added about 7500 litres from today's rain. Good news.