BUSSELTON experienced its equal warmest October, while also doing little to improve what has been a dry year.
The second warmest October day on record was posted this year, when the temperature reached 31.8 degrees on the 28th.
Only October 17, 2009, when the maximum was 32.2 degrees, has been warmer in Busselton’s history.
Also significant was the mean maximum temperature for the month, which was 22.9 degrees.
This was the equal warmest average for October ever, which remarkably was shared with both 2010 and 2011.
That means the Busselton has experienced the same average maximum for October in the last three years.
The minimum temperature dropped to a chilly 2.3 degrees on the 5th, the coldest October night since a record low 0.8 degrees on October 11, 2010.
October’s average minimum of nine degrees was above the long-term average, but slightly colder than last year.
The coldest maximum of last month was 18.5 degrees on the 4th, while the highest minimum was 15.6 degrees on the 13th.
October also saw Busselton record just 24.6mm of rainfall, well below the average for the month of 49.7mm.
John ‘JR’ Relf from the Weather Bureau said these temperature and rainfall figures were typical spring weather.
He noted that below-average rainfalls were becoming commonplace, with our October rainfall having not exceeded the long-term average since 2005.
That rainfall took Busselton’s year-to-date figure to 494.4mm by the end of the month, still well below the average of 771mm.
It is our fifth lowest year to date rainfall ever, with the previous records occurring in 1969, 2001, 2006 and 2010.
The early stages of November already seem to be rectifying the low rainfall of the last month.
Already 16.4mm has fallen in the first six days of the month, two-thirds away towards the November average of 24.6mm, which interestingly is the same as the actual rainfall experienced in October.
No rain is predicted in the foreseeable future, with a dry but mild end to the week.
Conditions are expected to be either mostly sunny or partly cloudy for the next few days, with maximum temperatures ranging between 23 and 25, with minimums forecasted to be between eight and 11.
