And 'The heat is on' - Shepparton

Under the heading “The heat is on”, today’s Shepparton News tells its readers that December was one of the hottest on record while last year was the driest since 2009.

It reports:

The Shepparton area experienced its driest year since 2009 in 2015, which also included on of the hottest Decembers in recorded history.

Shepparton had 364.2 mm of rainfall last year, short of the 441.5 mm average, while Tatura, Kyabram, Echuca and Benalla all experienced a similar outcome with a less rainfall than their annual average.

In Shepparton, the year started off with plenty of rainfall however there was notably drier than normal spring.

November had above average rain for the month (68.2 mm) but the whole of spring produced a meagre 96 mm, well short of 119 mm average after a dry winter.

Several hail storm events in November notably hit orchards and fruit growers in the area in a period of weeks ruining years of produce in the process.

December was the hottest in Shepparton based on the maximum mean temperature of 31.7°C which is 1.5 degrees more than the highest previous record registered in 2014 and 2.9 degrees higher than historical average for the month.

There were 22 days in December that went higher than 30°C and nine days that went beyond -3.2°C.

The hottest day in 2015 also came in December as well with a temperature of 41°C on December 19; the coolest temperature was June 21 when the temperature dropped overnight to -3.2°C.

However, July was the coldest month in 2015 with the mean maximum temperature 12.7°C half a degree cooler than the average.

At the start of December the Lake Eildon Dam the region’s storage was close to 50 per cent capacity because of water allocations to farmers earlier in the year and the dry conditions.

There is some potential for respire from the extreme heat though the Bureau of Meteorology’s climate outlook for January to March showing there’s only an even chance of going over the median temperature being exceeded.