mmg.com.au

While Echuca may have ended summer with a storm, the amount of rainfall for the season was almost half the average.

Echuca recorded just 43.4mm of rain for the whole of summer, compared to the average of 83.8mm.

February had the most rainfall for the season with 27.4mm, but more than half of this — 15.2mm — fell from Wednesday afternoon to 9am yesterday.

Monday and Tuesday also saw 11.2mm recorded in Echuca, while the only other rain came on February 22, when 1mm fell.

This compares to the average February rainfall of 26.8mm.

January saw the least amount of rain for summer, with only 4.2mm — all on January 14.

This is well below the average January rainfall of 27.8mm.

December’s rainfall of 11.8mm was also below the December average of 29.2mm.

Sky News Weather chief meteorologist Dick Whitaker said while summer was dry, the district could expect more normal rainfall during autumn.

‘‘The National Climate Centre is indicating fairly average or slightly below average rainfall for autumn,’’ he said.

Echuca also had plenty of hot days this year, with the average temperatures a couple of degrees higher than the long-term averages.

January and February saw maximum temperatures 2.5°C higher than usual, while December’s temperatures were 1.3°C higher than average.

The hottest day of summer was January 5, when the mercury topped 42.8°C.

It was one of five January days the temperature topped 40°C.

February’s hottest day in Echuca was February 7, when the mercury reached 38.9°C.

It was one of eight days that saw temperatures of more than 35°C and one of 23 days for the month that had temperatures higher than 30°C.

Echuca’s minimum temperatures were also slightly above average.

December averaged 0.3°C above the long-term average, January 0.1°C above average and February 1.6°C above average.

The coldest night during February came on February 2, when the temperature fell to 10°C.

The coldest night during summer, however, was on January 14, when 8.8°C was recorded.