Southeast Australia records driest January in 17 years

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Southeastern Australia has recorded its driest January in 17 years, continuing a very dry start to the summer season.

Rainfall across the region was well below normal, marking the second-driest start to a year since 1965. On average, weather stations reported about 23mm less rain than usual for January. Large parts of Victoria, South Australia, southern NSW and northern Tasmania saw significantly reduced totals.

Several major centres had almost no meaningful rain over December and January:

• Adelaide received just 2.8mm in December and no rain at all in January.

• Melbourne recorded 27.8mm in December and only 1.6mm in January.

• Wagga Wagga had 24.8mm in December and 2.0mm in January.

• Launceston saw 17.4mm in December and 3.2mm in January.

All of these figures sit well below long-term averages, deepening rainfall shortfalls across the southeast.

There were a few exceptions. Parts of the NSW South Coast and a small stretch of Victoria’s southwest coast experienced heavy downpours in January, including flash flooding along the Great Ocean Road on January 15. But these were isolated events in an otherwise dry pattern.

The outlook offers little relief in the short term. Adelaide and Melbourne are expected to stay mostly dry for the rest of the week, with only a slight chance of a light shower in Melbourne. Inland areas are also forecast to remain largely dry, though increasing tropical moisture could spark thunderstorms later in the week — mainly over inland NSW rather than South Australia or Victoria.

Overall, the southeast remains in a clear rainfall deficit as summer continues.

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