RAINFALL in Bendigo and parts of central Victoria provided welcome relief from warm weather on Sunday.
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Rain began falling in Bendigo shortly before 5am on Sunday.
A total of 7.6 millimetres was recorded by 9am, equalling the biggest single-day rainfall of the month, Bureau of Meteorology Data showed.
Between 9am and 10.30am, another 1.8 millimetres fell before the rain eased.
Although the rain kept many people indoors on Sunday morning, some made the most of the cool temperatures – and puddles – that came with the rain.
By late afternoon, temperatures were hovering around 14 and 15 degrees.
January’s hottest day was 42.3 degrees. The lowest temperature of the month – 9.0 degrees – came less than 48 hours later.
Overall, January was more than twice as wet in Bendigo as December was.
A total of 32.4 millimetres had fallen by Sunday afternoon, compared with 14.2 for the whole of December.
But it was a much dryer January than last year when 57.2 millimetres of rain was recorded.
However, that figure was boosted greatly by 39 millimetres falling in one day.
At Redesdale on Sunday, 9.8 millimetres fell between 1am and 9am and 7.8 millimetres more between 9am and 12.30pm.
Charlton received about 20 millimetres of rain between 9am and 2.30pm.
Local State Emergency Services crews were not called upon to attend any major incidents early on Sunday.
At Eddington, farmer Lloyd Forbes said his property had experienced steady rainfall in the morning, which would be good “for tank water”.
From a farmer’s perspective, he said, an isolated downpour leading into another hot summer month was unlikely to have much effect.
“Summer rain is nice and if we got (more) now, we’d take it. But we’ve got February and you know that’s usually hot,” he said.
Farmers, he said, would be more interested in what happened in about six to seven weeks from now.
“St Patrick’s Day … to the first of April, that’s when we want the autumn rain,” he said. “If we can get two or three inches over the course of a week – steady rain not something like we saw in Geelong last week – most farmers would be happy.”
Bendigo recorded just 9.6 millimetres of rain last February. Only five days throughout the month recorded any rain at all.
Showers are forecast for Bendigo on Tuesday, but temperatures are expected to top 30. Temperatures on Friday and Saturday are also tipped to exceed 30.
