Guy Dixon, 18 Apr 2015, 12:21 AM UTC
Heaviest April rain since the 80's for parts of VIC and NSW
Heavy rain with a northwest cloud band has delivered the most significant April rainfall since the 80's for parts of Victoria and southern New South Wales.
Elevated areas such as Falls Creek and Mount Hotham picked up some of the heaviest rainfall state wide. Falls Creek collected 97mm to 9am today, the heaviest April rainfall since at least 1994 (heaviest April rain on record, but there are some gaps between 1991-1994). This also went down as the third heaviest 24 hour total for any month on record.
Northwestern parts of the state also benefited from this deluge with Mildura collecting their heaviest April rain since 1989. The rain hardly relented throughout the 24 hour period to 9am today with 56mm collecting in the gauge. This equates to over three times the monthly average in just one day. Residents of the Murray-side town haven't seen a rain event of this magnitude since February 2011.
Across the border, Balranald picked up their heaviest April total since 1990 while Deniliquin received their healthiest April rain since 1998 with 44mm and 29mm respectively.
A severe weather warning was issued yesterday afternoon alerting for damaging winds over the Snowy Mountains and for good reason. Thredbo managed to clock maximum wind gusts of 117 km/h while the anemometer at Mount Hotham spun up to 113 km/h.
Upper cool air will move over the Alps on Sunday afternoon presenting the chance of snow over the resorts. Precipitation looks to be light and isolated, however there is potential for 5cm to fall as low as 1600 metres. Due to the strong southerly flow at the time, snow quality is likely to remain fairly poor with Victorian resorts likely to collect the majority.
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