Weather News

Wintry week in Victoria

Ben Domensino, Thursday August 17, 2017 - 11:30 AEST

Severe weather continues to batter Victoria today as bulging rivers overflow in the state's recently sodden northeast.

A series of cold fronts have brought rounds of rain, thunderstorms and damaging winds to Victoria this week.

This unmistakably wintry weather has been a notable change from the state's near-record dry start to the season.

Victoria experienced its driest June on record followed by the driest July since 2010. Combining the two months, Victoria had its driest start to winter in 35 years and the second driest start on record.

This lack of early-season rainfall was largely due to a dominance of high pressure systems over southern and eastern Australia. These highs limited the contribution of rain-bearing cold fronts that are typical in Victoria during winter.

After a two dry months, things have certainly turned around for parts of Victoria in August.

The most notable shift has been in the state's north, where many areas have already exceeded their average August rainfall and in some cases, have almost doubled it.

Mount Buller's 250mm so far this month is one and a half times the site's August average of 166.5mm. A whopping 134mm of this month's rain fell during the last 48 hours, making these the wettest pair of days at Mount Buller in seven years.

This week's fronts also brought 32mm of rain to Wangaratta in 24 hours, which is more than half a month's worth of rain for this time of year.

Following the recent rain, some rivers are experiencing flooding in the state's North East today.

Moderate flooding developed in the King River, to the south of Wangaratta, on Wednesday night and minor flooding was occurring in a number of rivers in the region this morning.

A brisk westerly flow and showers will continue to affect Victoria today, with a severe weather warning issued for damaging winds in parts of the northeast, south and southwest shortly after 10am. Flood watches and warnings are also in place today.

Blustery winds, showers, storms and low level snow will affect the state on Friday before calmer weather returns on the weekend.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2017

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