Rainfall stations in North East Victoria recorded well above average rainfalls for each of the three winter months. Wangaratta recorded 324mms, Rutherglen recorded 282mms, Benalla recorded 306mms, Albury recorded 219mms, Yarrawonga recorded 180mms, Euroa recorded 279mms and Strathbogie recorded 582mms during the winter months, which were the wettest since 1987. There were less frosts than usual at the major North East towns this winter, with 30 at Benalla, 31 at Wangaratta and 33 at Rutherglen. Mean maximum temperatures were one to two degrees above normal while mean minimum temperatures were a shade above normal. The strongest wind gust was 74kph at Wangaratta on 11 July and 84kph on 13 August. Wind gusts at alpine resorts often exceeded 100kph, with Mt Hotham reaching 120kph on Sunday 9 August. Adelaide has been swamped by a total of 379mms during the period May to August period this year, recording its sixth wettest year in 186 years. The wetter May to August periods were 404mms in 1963, 383mms in 1951, 450mm in 1923, 438mms in 1916 and 513mms in 1851. The May to August period in Adelaide was warmer than normal, and was in fact the warmest since 1980. This did set up a notable warm to hot spring season in Victoria with more than 100mms in November 1980 which continued well in to the 1980-81 summer.
