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South Australia's dry start to 2018

Ben Domensino, Wednesday March 28, 2018 - 13:57 AEDT

Parts of South Australia are having their driest start to a year in decades following another month of below-average rainfall across the southern half of the state.

January, February and March are typically the driest months of the year for many central and southern areas of South Australia, owing to a lack of cold fronts. These fronts become more active during the winter months, bringing heavier and more frequent rain.

However, the start of 2018 has been even drier than expected and some parts of South Australia are now experiencing their driest start to a year in about 30 years.

As of 9am today, Adelaide had only received 19mm of rain in its Kent Town rain gauge. This is the lowest amount of rain up to this point in the year since 1989.

Kingscote Airport's running total for 2018 was just 16mm as of this morning, making this its driest start to a year since 1997.

Stenhouse Bay is having its driest start to a year in at least 22 years, with just 13mm hitting the gauge since the beginning of January.

Unfortunately for those missing the rain, a dominant ridge of high pressure over southern Australia will maintain dry and sunny weather across most of South Australia during the next week.

According to the latest climate outlook issued by the Bureau of Meteorology earlier this month, there are roughly equal chances of above and below average rain across South Australia during the next three months.

As we head towards the middle of the year, rainfall should start to increase over the southern half of South Australia.

- Weatherzone

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