City battles the dry

Last year was Shepparton’s driest in 12 years.

Feeling the heat: The city had
sweltered through heatwave-like
 conditions during January, with
 the mercury passing 40°C on
 eight days.

According to Bureau of Meteorology rainfall readings at Shepparton Airport, the city received a total of 266.4 mm last year.

This is the lowest annual rainfall at the site since 2006, when a total of 183 mm was received.

The 2018 annual rainfall total was also the third lowest on record for the site, according to BoM.

By contrast, the yearly rainfall total for 2016 was 640 mm, while 426 mm fell in Shepparton in 2017.

Furthermore, 2018 had the driest February on record at Shepparton Airport with just 1 mm of rain recorded.

This total was surpassed last Thursday, February 7, alone, with 4.2 mm falling in the city.

Last month, Shepparton received just 6.6 mm; the fourth-lowest January rainfall in the past 22 years.

BoM climatologist Simon Grainger pointed to last year’s rainfall figures as being ‘‘all part of the drought that had a lot of publicity in NSW’’.

‘‘But northern Victoria was also affected by that.’’

While BoM has three-month rainfall forecasts, Mr Grainger said the current one, encompassing February to April, had not offered a strong indication for higher or lower-thanaverage rainfall for this winter.

The three-month seasonal outlook indicated it was too early to tell at present.

The city had also sweltered through heatwave-like conditions during January, with the mercury passing 40°C on eight days, and reaching a high of 46°C on January 25.

Mr Grainger said looking over the longer term, Australia had seen rainfall decrease during the past 20 years, as well as since early in the 20th century.

He described temperatures in Shepparton last year as being ‘‘very much above average’’, adding they were in the top 10 per cent of all years since 1910.

The climatologist referred to a state of climate report which found in south-east Australia April to October rainfall had declined by 11 per cent in the past 20 years compared to the period from 1900 to 1998.

‘‘Temperatures in northern Victoria . . . were very hot over the last two months, but even (last year) they were 1.5 to two degrees above long-term average,’’ Mr Grainger said.

Referencing the same report, Mr Grainger said the prediction was that temperatures in the southern part of the Murray-Darling Basin might increase by between 2.7°C and 4.5°C by the end of 21st century on an annual average basis.

But rainfall levels into the future, Mr Grainger said, were more difficult to predict.

‘‘Rainfall is a bit harder to get a more definitive feel for it.’’

Story from The Shepparton News - “City battles the dry.”