Hit and miss rainfall

Sunday night storms were hit and miss across West Gippsland, with much needed rain completely missing some areas while others witnessed heavy downpours.

The Bureau of Meteorology's official weather station based at Nilma North recorded just 0.6mm for the 24 hours to 9am Monday morning. Rainfalls barely enough to register in gauges also were reported in Warragul and Drouin.

But in the north, Walhalla residents saw 44.2mm of rain fall within 20 minutes while 14mm in Trafalgar caused flash flooding in some streets.

West Gippsland residents were hoping for more rain in Sunday's storm following the second driest January on record with just 3.6mm of rain recorded in Warragul.
In the 115-year records for Warragul, the driest January was in 1990 when 0.8mm was recorded. Rain was recorded on just four days in January this year.
Average rainfall for January is 57.6mm.

The dry start to 2026 is similar to last year when 10.2mm was recorded for January. However, the January 2024 total of 94.6mm was significantly above average.

The past three years have seen annual totals significantly below the 115-year average of 1012.7mm. Last year't total was 836.8mm while the two previous years were 759.4 in 2024 and 907.2 in 2023.