The summer season has come to an end. It was a wet one with over 900 mm of rain over the three months. However, it was not as wet as the summer of 2008 when Maleny recorded rainfall of 1,213 mm.
February is usually the wettest month of the year and it is no surprise that it rained on 22 days this month. Total February rainfall was 601.4 mm, well above the 117 year average of 332 mm. Previous record rainfall occurred in 2003 with 783 mm. It was also wet in 1999 with 880 mm. This was when 630 mm fell in four days, and brought the Obi-Obi up to the height of the library boardwalk. It also contributed in no small way to the flooding of town centres at Gympie and Maryborough.
Most of the rain we have had this month came from an active monsoonal trough line with a tendency to track south and interact with a high pressure system extending from a high over the south Tasman Sea..
Mean temperature for the month was up by two degrees from the norm of 20°C, while relative humidity was in the range of 85 and 95 per cent. There were ten days when the THSW Stress factor measured 35°C and over, similar to last year.
