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With time to spare and more rain forecast, Bendigo has already experienced its wettest September on record.
As of this morning, the Bureau of Meteorology had recorded 139.6 millilitres of rainfall from its Bendigo Airport observation station.
That station has been operational since late 1991. In that time, 1993 saw the wettest September, recording 111ml of rain.
The records of nearby stations date back much farther. The records at Raywood – about 27 kilometers from the CBD – begin in late 1898.
In that time, the wettest September was 1916, which recorded 128.4ml of rainfall.
Other stations in a similar proximity have received the occasional year with higher rainfall, but not for decades.
And with more precipitation to come, Bendigo may well approach 150ml of rain this month.
BoM duty forecaster Matt Michael said the region could expect between 1ml-5ml of rain on Friday, in addition to the rain which has fallen sporadically throughout the day.
“The high rainfall was due to a sequence of cold fronts moving across Victoria this September,” Mr Michael said.
“We’ve had a high frequency of cold fronts bringing in, not necessarily unusual amounts of rain, but we’ve had a high number going through so hence the significantly higher monthly rainfall for the whole of Victoria.”
Much of central Victoria received heavy flooding in middle of the month, reaching its peak between 13-16 September.
The unseasonably wet September has been a boon for the region’s parched water storage reservoirs.
The 73-megalitre Tullaroop Reservoir has gone from 34.7 per cent capacity last month to 101 per cent in September, while the significantly larger, 305-megalitre capacity Lake Eppalock has more than doubled in volume, from 40.6 per cent to 87 per cent in a month.
The 147-megalitre Cairn Curran Reservoir rose from 39.2 per cent capacity in August to 94.3 per cent capacity in September
As of this afternoon a severe weather warning was lifted from central Victoria, but BoM was continuing to monitor the situation and warning people to avoid floodwaters, storm drains and creeks.
Precipitation is forecast to return to normal – in the short-term.
“At the moment, October is expected to see about average rainfall,” Mr Michael said.