The highs, lows, and unexpected rainfall of autumn 2024

The season started with March, known for its warm days and cold nights.

March 2024 was warm compared to the historical average for daytime temperatures recorded at the Shepparton Airport.

Historically, March has had an average highest daytime temperature of 32℃, but 2024’s first month of autumn had a high of 37.4℃ on March 9.

In terms of the lowest maximum daytime temperature, this year’s figure of 20.7℃ was 2.3℃ warmer than last year’s 18.4℃.

The highest night time minimum temperature was 21.5℃, which was warmer than last year’s 19.3℃.

The lowest night time temperature this year was 5.7℃, which is only 0.1℃ warmer than the coldest March ever recorded in Shepparton.

It was a dry month, with a rainfall total of 19.8mm, of which 19.4mm fell on March 20.

Historically, March has had an average of 34.5mm of rain.

Looking across the region, Echuca had the highest daytime temperature of 38.5℃ on March 9 and the lowest daytime maximum temperature of 22.3℃ on March 20.

It was a dry month for Echuca, with only 2.8mm recorded at the Echuca Aerodrome.

Kyabram had a similarly dry month, with 9.8mm of rain recorded at its weather station.

The Tatura Institute Sustainable Agriculture recorded the highest daytime temperature of 36.6℃ during March and the lowest night time temperature of 6.7℃.

Tatura had 10.4mm of rain, and Benalla had similar numbers, with 10.6mm recorded at the Benalla Airport.

Benalla had the highest daytime temperature of 36.6℃.

April is the middle child of this season, and it was dry, dry, dry.

Shepparton had a drier than usual April, with daytime temperatures similar to normal and night time ones slightly colder than expected.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Shepparton recorded 28.8mm of rain in April.

Most of that fell on just one day — 18.8mm on April 2.

A further 7.8mm fell on April 6, but other than that, the other four days when rain was recorded saw less than 1mm.

This year’s monthly figure is only 5mm below the historical mean April rainfall recorded over the past 28 years at Shepparton Airport.

Still, it is well below the 43mm historical mean recorded at the old Bureau of Meteorology station at Lemnos between 1965 and 1996.

Daytime temperatures in Shepparton this year were similar to usual at this time of year.

Shepparton had a mean daytime temperature of 22°C, similar to the historical mean temperature of 22.6°C recorded over the past 28 years.

The warmest day this year was April 1, when the mercury reached 33.1°C, only a little below the hottest April day on record, when the temperature reached 35.1°C.

The coolest day saw the temperature get to only 18°C on April 9.

Night time temperatures were slightly below average this year, with a mean temperature of 7.9°C.

The warmest night was April 2, when the temperature fell to only 14.1°C, while the coldest night was April 27, when it dropped to a chilly 1.6°C.

The final days of autumn were the direct opposite of April, being wet, wet, wet.

There was a total of 75.8mm of rainfall, double the historical average for May in Shepparton, being 33.8mm.

The highest rainfall in one day for May in Shepparton was 58.2mm from 9am on Thursday, May 30 to 9am on Friday, May 31.

The period of 8.30pm to 9.30pm on Thursday had the most rain in one hour, with 17.6mm.

The wet weather began at 4pm on Thursday and eased off by 1.30am on Friday.

In terms of daytime temperatures, it was an average month for both day and night time temperatures.

The highest daytime temperature was 22.9℃ on Monday, May 6, and the lowest was 14.9℃ on Saturday, May 18.

The mean maximum temperature is 17.5℃ in Shepparton.

Night time temperatures were also average, with the highest being 13.2℃ on Saturday, May 11 and the lowest being -1.1℃ on Tuesday, May 28 which was also the lowest for the season.

The lowest night time temperature for Shepparton in May this year was 2℃ warmer than the coldest night recorded in Shepparton, which was 3.1℃ on May 16, 1999.

For now, grab a hot water bottle and a puffer jacket and enjoy this year's winter.