Weather News

No Perth rain in April for first time since 1982

It is the first time it has not rained in Perth in April for 35 years. - ABC

No rain fell in Perth at all during the month of April for only the fourth time in the past 140 years, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The average monthly rainfall for April is 44 millimetres, but Perth has not recorded any rainfall since March 27.

Bureau spokesman Neil Bennett said it was the first time it had failed to rain in Perth in April for 35 years and only the fourth time it had happened since records began in 1876.

"April has come in with no rain whatsoever and that's the first time since 1982," he said.

"[It's] something we would not have expected coming off a very, very wet summer.

"It is a fairly significant sort of record that we are equalling, but not a good record by any stretch of the imagination."

Farmers are suffering

Mr Bennett said it was usually raining in Perth by Anzac Day and most farmers expected a break around that time to begin seeding crops.

"But so far we've had 30 dry days in April and we also had four days at the back end of March [that was dry] as well, so it is a considerable long spell that we are experiencing right now."

Mr Bennett said there was no significant climate driver of the dry spell, which was due to very few cold fronts moving up from the Southern Ocean and those that did failed to reach Perth.

He said the forecast was not likely to change until later this week at the earliest.

"We can't see any break to this until, at the very earliest, on Thursday evening, so there may be some showers on Thursday evening into Friday, but the front that is going to produce that is very weak and there's a possibility it may not get to Perth," Mr Bennett said.

Pastoralists and Graziers Association (PGA) president Tony Seabrook, who farms in the Avon Valley, said the normal break for the season was May 20, so there was still some time.

"But with prices being depressed, both with canola and especially with wheat, we just need above-average yields," Mr Seabrook said.

"There's no doubt at a given point, and we're almost there now, yield starts falling away as every day goes by without rain to germinate the crop."



Growers in many grain-growing parts of the state are looking to the horizon, hoping for rain.

During April, just 2 millimetres of rain fell on Scott Stirrat's farm, south-east of Merredin.

He has started seeding wheat in dry soil in the hope the season will break in the next fortnight.

"We're not panicking, but would certainly like to see a change in the weather pattern, for sure," he said.

"If we haven't had rain for the last week of May we start to lose yield potential."

But Mr Bennet said the outlook was not good news for farmers.

"There was very good summer rainfall which put some subsoil moisture into the system, but the outlook for the next three months is suggesting that the odds of the rainfall being above average are less than the odds of the rainfall being below," he said.

"The signs at the moment are suggesting that the next three months are more likely to be dry than wet."


- ABC

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