Most residents in Victoria woke to a dampened soil this morning, after many places saw their best rain in months. Rain developed in western parts on Sunday morning and spread east as a low pressure trough and cold front crossed the state.
There were widespread falls of 5-15mm over western and central parts of Victoria to 9am this morning, with even heavier falls in the southwest and northeast. This would have come as welcome relief for farmers, with many places sitting well short of their average rainfall over the first four months of the year.
In the three days until Sunday, Hobart experienced its warmest weather this late in autumn in 74 years, averaging a maximum temperature of 21.5 degrees. Nights have also been warm during the past few days with minimum temperatures coming in more than four degrees above the May average.
A strong cool change with a front and a low pressure system will see both the days and nights become cooler with widespread showers from Tuesday.
Carnarvon avocado growers have seen a production drop this year, with one grower reporting yields from his crop have been halved. A slower year was expected after a heatwave burnt ripening crops in February but strong prices have helped growers, up around 40 per cent on last year.
Wes Bassett, a biodynamic avocado grower in Carnarvon, says it's too early to tell if high prices will make up for the drop in production.
Farmers in southern NSW have had light falls of rain in the past 24 hours and say it could make all the difference to their seasonal outlook. There have been widespread showers in the Riverina, with reports of up to 20 millimetres at Wagga Wagga, and 14 millimetres at Holbrook.
Further north, at Lake Cargelligo in the central west of the state, farmer Peter McFadyen has had 11 millimetres and is hopeful of more.
Primary Producers SA said weekend rain would give little relief for many farmers across South Australia. It said most falls were fairly isolated across pockets of the south-east, Riverland and in Adelaide.
Warm and dry weather for early May saw some growers halt their seeding. Chairman of Primary Producers SA Rob Kerin said soil was dry and still needed a soaking.
Both Sydney and Canberra have woken up to dense morning fog to kick off Mother's Day. The Sydney Basin saw its most widespread thick fog of the year, as light winds combined with high moisture levels.
Sydney city had its visibility reduced down to 50 metres, while in some western suburbs it was even lower. In Sydney's north, it was a mix of smoke haze and fog due to back burning in the area over the last two days. Sydney's airport largely missed out, with light morning fog only causing minimal disruptions to flights.
Alice Springs has just had its longest run of May heat in 71 years of records. The town has reached 30 degrees on every day this May except one, when it reached 29.9. This makes it the longest string of temperatures this high since records began in 1942. The current average this May is 31 degrees, eight above the norm. The very warm days have also been accompanied by warm nights.
This morning it only dropped to 18.2 degrees, 10 degrees above average and the second warmest May night in the last decade.
Marshall Islands has declared a state of disaster in the island nation's north due to prolonged drought. The decision was made this week after United Nations assessment teams found approximately 10,000 people have so far been affected.
They say there is not enough clean drinking water, food gardens are dying from lack of water, and there are concerns about the spread of disease and illness.
WA's main grain handler, the CBH Group, is optimistic of achieving crop levels of between 10 and 15 million tonnes for the 2013-14 harvest.
General Manager Operations for the CBH Group, Colin Tutt, says that recent rain has made for the best start across the state for several years. "We do recognise that some areas are still a little bit dry and the rain has been a little bit patchy, but overall we're very, very pleased."
The unseasonable May heat is set to finally end in South Australia, with cooler temperatures and rain over the weekend. Temperatures have been sizzling across the state throughout May, with another warm day today.
On Wednesday, Adelaide had its second hottest May day on record reaching 31.1 degrees. Thursday was also a sizzler with a top of 29.8 degrees and the maximum has hit 29 degrees today. This makes it the warmest three day period in May since 1921.
