From Mildura to Kerang, towns have recorded their wettest Octobers on record.
Yet as floods surged through the Murray, Loddon, Goulburn and Campaspe rivers, and the widespread creek system in the region, it was even higher rainfalls in central Victoria that fed the floods.
Mildura recorded a whopping 109.6mm in the month, with a staggering 44.8mm falling on October 13 and a further 21mm the next day.
In October 2021, the total for the month was just 17.1mm.
Swan Hill residents almost needed to grow gills, with its wettest October on record.
The rural city’s aerodrome weather station was inundated with 160.6mm, eclipsing the previous top mark for October of 119mm in 1975, with emergency services pumping water out of properties and drains after flash flooding caught many off guard.
The worst of the rain arrived on October 13 when 71mm was recorded – also the highest daily falls on record for October.
At Kerang the gauge racked up 149.2mm, with October 13 and 14 again the heaviest falls, with 51.6mm and 23.6mm respectively.
The same period in 2021 saw a total of just 22.4mm – less than the fall on either of the wettest days.
Australia as a whole had the second-highest area-average rainfall on record for October, behind 1975.
NSW recorded the highest area-average rainfall at 142.1mm, breaking the record of 109.5mm, set in 1950.
“October was much wetter than average across most of the state, with large parts of central and northern Victoria having their wettest October on record,” Bureau of Meteorology said in its monthly climate summary.
“For the state as a whole, rainfall was more than double the 1961-1990 October average of 64.6mm.
“A cold front and a low pressure trough interacting with humid air over northern Australia, brought rain and thunderstorms to Victoria on the 6th and 7th.
“Widespread rainfall and showers resulted in daily rainfall totals between 10 and 30mm at many sites. There were isolated higher falls, mostly associated with thunderstorms.
“Showers and rain developed across most of Victoria on the 12th in a moist northerly airflow, with the heaviest falls in central parts of the state; through these areas, widespread daily rainfall totals between 20 and 60mm were recorded, with isolated totals exceeding 100 mm.
“A cold front crossed Victoria on the 13th, bringing widespread rainfall and strong winds, with the highest daily totals in the central and north-eastern parts.”
As of Wednesday Swan Hill had recorded 61.2mm for November, on its way to doubling the average 39.9mm for the month.
In Mildura the total to the same day was 50.2mm, almost double the average for the past 50 years of 26.1mm.
And Kerang had reached 23.8mm against its long-term historical average of 29.8mm
The highest monthly totals were in Victoria’s north-east, with Mount Buller the state’s wettest site with 490mm.
In the first 10 months of the year Victoria’s rainfall was 29 per cent above average, the fifth-highest on record, and the highest since 1974.
