Shepparton soaked: Region records wettest year since 2010

August, September and October delivered the bulk of the wet weather, with 60.6mm of rain in August, 80.2mm in September — across 14 different days — and then 151.6mm in October, the month of the flooding.

Rain in August and September saw rivers rise across the region to minor flood level, before October’s deluge pushed all rivers and creeks in the region into major flood levels.

Two days in October alone — October 13 and 14 — delivered 33mm and 43.2mm of rain respectively in Shepparton, with the peak of the flooding arriving days later as more than 200mm falling in the Strathbogie Ranges and further south of Shepparton arrived via the Broken and Goulburn rivers.

The Goulburn River reached 12.06 metres at its peak on October 17, shy of the projected 12.2m.

In contrast, 4.8mm of rain fell in February, all of it on February 27 — it would otherwise have been the city’s first completely dry month since 1991.

August 2022 was the wettest August on record since the meteorological station moved from Lemnos to the airport in 1996, while last year marked the wettest October since 1993, when the city last faced major floods.

In that year, 186mm of rain fell across the month, the bulk of it in three days, while 1975 was also a wetter October, at 180.4mm of rain.

A wetter than average January, February and March are expected for south-eastern Australia, according to the bureau.

Shepparton was slightly cooler than average through 2022, with no days cracking the 40℃ barrier — the warmest day was 38.8℃ on February 16, with the warmest overnight minimum temperature — 23.8℃ — recorded the night afterwards.

The average temperature for 2022 was 21.9℃, the same as 2021, which was the coolest year by mean temperature since 2012.

The coldest temperature for the year was recorded on the morning of July 20, when the mercury plummeted to -3.4℃.

The lowest maximum for the year was 10.6℃ on July 29.