The warm and dry conditions of last year have continued for the first nine days of 2026 without any sign of much needed rainfalls in most of Victoria.

Last November Melbourne had its coldest day on 8 November since 1945, which was a warmer and dry year in Victoria whilst major centres in the Northern Tropical Coast had one of their wettest ever years in the last 160 years.

We had a very hot day in the third week of last December with 41 degrees which certainly happened during the third week of December 1945 and more hot days near the end of December which also happened late in December of 1945.

Last week's very hot spell of was in line with four successive days of just over 40 degrees recorded at Rutherglen during the second week of January 1946.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms did bring much needed rainfalls over all of Victoria during the third week of January 1946.

Interestingly heavy rain has fallen from Cairns to Townsville during the first week of January this year - and the early part of 1946 was also very wet in this area of Queensland.

Barometric pressures in Melbourne the last few months of last year, particularly November, were notably below normal which explains the high frequency of strong winds. Past occurrences of these disturbed conditions took place in 1946, 1944 and 1898.

The one in 1898 saw the temperature reach 43 degrees in Melbourne in December that year and the dry conditions continued well into January 1899 before much needed rainfall arrived the fourth week of January.

February 1899 was dry and very hot until near the end of February, and then March 1899 was much wetter than average with over 100mms of rainfall.