July a little warmer than normal

Mid-way through July and Wangaratta is seeing slightly warmer temperatures than normal. The mean maximum temperature to date of 13.4 degrees and mean minimum temperature of 3.1 degrees are both a fraction of a degree above the July average. For other North East centres of Benalla, Rutherglen, Yarrawonga and Albury, the mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures have also been around 13 degrees and three degrees respectively. The lowest temperature to date this month was from minus 1.0 to minus 2.5 degrees. It is interesting to note all five major centres during June recorded lower than minus three degrees on four mornings and there has been none so far this month. Rainfalls up until July 17 were Wangaratta 21mms, Benalla 31.8mms, Yarrawonga 19.2mms, Rutherglen 18mms and Albury 24mms - all well below the July average. Other rainfall totals so far this month include Falls Creek 53.6mms, Mt Hotham 32.6mms and Mt Buller 63.8mms, which are all well down on average, while temperatures have been normal. A persistent westerly air stream with mainly light showery periods has continued after a warm start to July when the temperature reached 17 degrees in Wangaratta and at other centres. Very little sunshine has resulted and this was reflected at Lake Eildon where only 27 hours of sunshine has been recorded up to July 15 this month. It's a different case in Cairns where maximum and minimum temperatures have been two degrees above normal since May. This was the warmest since 2021 and before that in 2010 and 1998. It has been unusually dry in Cairns since the middle of May and in the two months to the middle of July only 15.8mms has fallen - the driest for this mid-May to mid-July period since 8.4mms in 2002. The year 2002 in Cairns was the driest ever year with only 771mms. However, this year up to mid-May in Cairns was extremely wet with 2290mms, already above the annual average of 1988mms. The period of January to end of April 1896 was also very wet in Cairns with 2190mms and only 5mms fell during June and July 1896. For our North East region, September 1896 was notably wetter than average, but October 1896 to December 1896 was certainly warmer and drier than usual in Victoria and NSW, with heavy rain arriving in January 1897.

July a little warmer than normal

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