WHILE the Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a generally warm and dry winter, it seems the clouds above the South East did not receive the memo last week.
The region was drenched at the weekend, with over 21mm of rain falling in Mount Gambier last Friday followed by 22.6mm on Sunday.
A total 82.4mm of rain has been recorded in the city this month – not far off the average rainfall for June of 84.1mm.
In Millicent a whopping 89.2mm of rain fell in the week ending on Sunday.
The BOM’s winter outlook might have been an unwelcome forecast for the region’s farmers, but SA Dairyfarmers Association President John Hunt said he was unfazed.
“It has been quite cold so the grass never really got going, but the moisture has picked up now,” Mr Hunt said.
“We had plenty of rain over the weekend.
“The bureau has predicted a warmer and drier winter, but that should be fine here as long as we do get a bit of rain here and there to fill the aquifers.”
According to the BOM’s winter outlook, June has high chances of being drier than average in the southeast mainland, with winter days and nights tipped to be warmer than average for most of Australia.
The BOM has predicted a 100pc chance of at least 100mm of rain in Mount Gambier between July and September, with a 95pc chance of at least 150mm of rain.
