mmg.com.au

Day time temperatures in Echuca-Moama for 2012 were close to average, while the nights were a little cooler.

The hottest day of the year was November 29, when the mercury topped 43.2°C.

The coldest temperature was -4°C on July 7.

The towns had below average rainfall, compared to the long-term average of 428mm.

This year, 377.3mm of rain fell over 81 days.

The heaviest rainfall, 94mm on March 1, caused flash flooding in the district as the water was not able to drain away fast enough in some areas.

Weather Channel chief meteorologist Dick Whitaker said less cloud cover throughout the year had caused much of Echuca-Moama’s weather.

‘‘Less cloud cover means the nights have been colder, there has been a higher maximum temperature and less rainfall than average,’’ he said.

He said the towns’ weather patterns were similar to what had been experienced throughout central Victoria this year.

Echuca’s December daytime temperatures were slightly above normal, with an average of 30.1°C this year compared to the long-term average of 28.7°C.

The hottest day for the month came on the 23rd, when the mercury topped 39.9°C.

While that seemed hot, it was lower than the highest December temperature on record — 44.6°C on December 31, 2005.

December’s night time temperatures have been close to normal, with an average of 14°C for the month, slightly higher than the long-term average of 13°C.

The coldest night this month came on December 17, when the temperature dropped to 9.7°C.

Echuca-Moama saw 11.8mm rain fall over four days during December, with the most, 6.8mm, falling on December 15.

The month’s rain was less than the long-term average December rainfall of 29.3mm.

It is also much less than the wettest December on record, where 180.1mm fell in 1930, but more than the driest December on record where only 1mm fell in December 1925.