LAST year saw the welcome return of decent rain to Mansfield Shire after a couple of lean seasons.
The annual rainfall measured in town for the whole year was 726mm, way up on the previous year’s 447mm and 2018’s 514mm.
But the rain wasn’t spaced evenly over the year, with unusual off-season peaks and troughs throughout.
The whole state received more rain in the first few months of 2020 than it did for all of 2019, making it the wettest start to the year since 1924.
From the get go Mansfield kicked off the year with a warm but very wet month.
It was only the second January in 25 years to reach 100mm for the first month of the year.
Thunderstorms, associated with a slow-moving low-pressure trough, produced the local heavy falls mid-month.
February was a wet month as well when averaged across Victoria and Mansfield’s wettest in five years.
Local falls were three times that of the previous year and more than six times wetter than 2018, which was tragically low.
Interestingly, daytime temperatures were cooler than average, while night-time temperatures across the North East were warmer than average.
March’s rain was also above average, seeing the highest drop since 2014, primarily due to early month rainfall caused by the remnants of tropical cyclone Esther, which also caused a slightly cooler than average month.
But it was April that really opened the heavens, bringing the second highest April rainfall on record for Mansfield, with the highest being recorded way back in 1939.
The town took in a whopping 177mm, more than eight times the 20mm we received in 2019.
There was short term flooding across the shire as the rivers reached capacity across the state.
Conversely, May was drier than average over the North East and both daytime and night-time temperatures were cooler than average.
But May saw a sharp increase in Lake Nillahcootie’s storage levels that would continue to rise through the year, culminating in a 100 per cent fill by October.
Rainfall returned to average as winter closed in, but weather was dominated by high pressure systems, with generally dry mild days and cold mornings under the clear sky.
The Strathbogies managed to score the coldest night of the month, even outdoing Mt Buller at -5.0°C on the 9th.
June also saw the beginning of Eildon’s much needed rise in level which would peak in November, almost scratching the 70 per cent mark.
Shockingly, after all the early rainfall, statewide rainfall as winter began was 35 per cent below the July average and the driest in Mansfield since 1997.
About 25cm of snow fell on Buller and the Victorian Alps in a wake of cold fronts which crossed the state at the beginning of the month.
Again, it was drier than average in August, but widespread heavy snow fell on the 4th and Mt Buller had its peak depths of the year, which was just half the amount of 2019.
September rainfall was below average across most of the North East with 50mm recorded in Mansfield, even less than the dry year before.
But as October came around it brought the heavy rains back with it, recording 92.3mm – the highest for the month in 10 years.
The previous records were shattered up the road in Lima East, which got 171.4mm over the month and Lake Eildon had 139.8mm, the highest October fall since 1993.
Then it all calmed down again for November, with less than average rainfalls, half as much as the last two years, which were considered dry.
Damaging northerly winds affected much of the state with the strongest wind gusts of 120km/h recorded at Mt Buller.
Buller also recorded the coldest average across the entire state with 10.9°C.
December didn’t bring much more rain with just 21mm, though it was at least higher than the previous year’s 20 year low of 7mm.
Temperatures were also down across the state, with the lowest average since 2006.
