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Autumn ends up wetter-than-average for most of SA

Brett Dutschke, Monday May 30, 2016 - 13:06 AEST

Despite some long dry spells, particularly during April, more than 80 percent of South Australia has ended up with a wetter-than-average autumn, with some of the north doubling their seasonal norm.

Lake Eyre had a good drink of fresh water. Marree, just to the north, had its wettest autumn in 27 years, gaining 96mm, 72mm more than average.

Another traditionally drier area of the state is Kimba, but this year picked up about one-and-a-half times the seasonal average rainfall. They had the wettest autumn in five years with 119mm, 50mm more than average.

The state's wettest area was the Adelaide Hills with widespread 200-to-300mm, three-to-four times the seasonal average. About three quarters of this fell during May, leading to flooding on a few days. Ashton amassed 291mm, Uraidla 289mm, Mt Lofty 275mm and Gumeracha 250mm. A welcome 191mm fell in Mt Bold Reservoir, 130mm more than average.

Adelaide had its wettest autumn in four years with 88mm, more than 20mm above average.

It was the wettest autumn in five years in the Mallee's Karoonda with 114mm (43mm more than average).

Parts of the state which didn't fare so well included Edithburgh on southern Yorke Peninsula, receiving only 77 percent of its average of 91mm.

Looking ahead to winter, we should see a continuation of frequent bursts of rain, some sourced from north-west cloud bands, fuelled with moist air from a warmer-than-normal Indian Ocean. Overall, the season should turn out near-or-wetter-than-normal.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2016

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