General
6 May, 2026
Rain welcome, mild conditions persist
CASTERTON broke two of its own weather records on Friday - for the second time this year.
Thanks to our local weather-watch man, James Wombwell, Casterton News was alerted to the new data, showing both the highest daily temperature (27.9 degrees) and warmest night (14.9 degrees) for the 1st of May, since records began.
On 27 January, this year, when the temperature hit 44.7 degrees at 2.22pm, it busted the previous record of 44.5 degrees, set twice on 29 January, 2009 and 20 December, 2019.
The Bureau of Meterology reported that April temperatures had been above average across most of the southern two-thirds of Australia, while much of northern Australia has had average to below average temperatures.
April rainfall was below average for large parts of south-western, central and eastern Australia.
This includes much of New South Wales and southern Queensland where significant rainfall deficiencies have emerged over the past months, while rainfall was above average in parts of the west, and in the north.
Saturday’s rainfall across the district was welcomed, but sporadic, with just a kilometre or two as the crow flies, seeing a difference of 10mm or more, in recorded rainfall.
Jasmine Pendlebury and Gillian McCabe reported on the Casterton News Facebook page that 40 and 30 millimetres of rain fell up to 9am Sunday at Poolaijelo and Apsley, respectively, while Jake Tomkins advised there were “more beers in (Wando Vale) than what we got in mm”.
In April, Casterton recorded a total 23.6mm of rain, below both the monthly mean and median for the month and the top of 8.2mm recorded on 10 April, is well below the record 29mm recorded in 2007.
According to the bureau, rainfall for May to July is likely to be below average across much of eastern Australia and in parts of the south, with the strongest signal for below average rainfall in May.
The lower than average rainfall sees combined water storages across Australia around 67, per cent full, while several sites across the east and south-west are less than half full.
The above average daytime temperatures are “very likely” across most of the country from May to July, with an increased chance of unusually high maximum temperatures for much of eastern and parts of south-western Australia.
Forecast models suggest a possible shift to El Niño by late winter.
El Niño typically means:
Reduced rainfall
Warmer temperatures
Shift in temperature extremes
Increased frost risk
Increased fire danger in southeast Australia
An El Niño occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become substantially warmer than average and this causes a shift in atmospheric circulation.
For more information visit www.bom.gov.au.
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