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Dry start to 2018 for some southern Australians

Ben Domensino, Thursday March 8, 2018 - 13:19 AEDT

Parts of Victoria and South Australia are longing for rain after a prolonged dry spell in the opening months of 2018.

While this is typically one of the driest times of year in this part of the country, the last few weeks have been even drier than usual in South Australia and Victoria.

Rainfall across South Australia as a whole was about 15 per cent below average in January, while many central and eastern parts of the state had less than 40 per cent of their average rainfall during February.

January rainfall was also 16 per cent below the long-term average in Victoria and last month was the state's driest February since 2009.

The missing rain in recent weeks has left some parks and gardens looking a rather parched around Adelaide and Melbourne.

As of 9am on Thursday March 8th, Adelaide had only registered 9.8mm of rain in its West Terrace gauge. This is Adelaide's lowest accumulated rainfall up to this point in the year since 1989. Last year, there had already been 81mm by this date.

Further east, Melbourne has only registered 2.8mm of rain since the beginning of February and has seen less than 1mm of rain fall in the city's gauge, every day, for the last 37 days. This is Melbourne's longest spell of days below 1mm since 2009.

Looking ahead, no substantial rain is expected to reach Adelaide or Melbourne until at least mid March.

- Weatherzone

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