January 2015 was the first month since April last year that Mudgee received more than its average monthly rainfall, it was also nearly two degrees colder than normal.
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Mudgee received a total of 74.6mm of rain from the month, which is up on the January average for the last 20 years of 68mm.
There were a total of 11 rainy days throughout the month, with the wettest being the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, January 12 when 20mm was recorded.
Mudgee normally has seven rainy days in January.
There were four days that had 10mm or more of rain recorded.
According to Weatherzone.com.au the wet start to 2015 in eastern Australia was caused by a “quasi-permanent trough” over the eastern inland which combined with warm and very moist northerly winds throughout the month, bringing a lot of rainfall.
Warmer than average sea surface waters have also played an important role, by pumping increased levels of moisture into the atmosphere.
The average maximum temperature for Mudgee in January was just 28.8°C, a whole 1.8°C down on the average for this time of the year.
The hottest day of the month was the first day of the month when 35.1°C was recorded, a far cry from the hottest ever January day recorded in Mudgee last year when the mercury hit 42.5°C on January 3, 2014.
Less than half of the days during the month – 14 – had a top temperature that got past the 30°C mark.
The average minimum temperature for the month was 16°C, slightly up on the average of 15.7°C.
This was despite January ending with a run of sub 10°C nights that bottomed out at the last day of the month when 6.2°C was recorded in the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday the 31st.
According to Weatherzone.com.au the short term forecast is looking to be drier, with heat building once again over central parts of Australia during the first half of February.