Australian Monthly Climate Summary: October 2006 Thursday 9
November, 2006 The severe drought which has been affecting large
parts of Australia continued in October. The all-Australian
average rainfall was 52% below normal for October, the 11th
lowest on record. Only widespread rain in the last week through
the largely unpopulated interior of Western Australia prevented
October from being Australia’s driest on record. It was a warm
October through most of Australia, with both daytime maximum
temperatures (anomaly +1.80°C) and minima (+1.07°C) the sixth-
highest on record. Maximum temperatures were especially high in
much of the south-east, with anomalies exceeding 2°C over most
of Victoria, inland New South Wales, eastern South Australia and
southern inland Queensland, and reaching 5°C in parts of
southern inland New South Wales between Wagga Wagga and
Canberra. It was the warmest October on record over an area
extending through central New South Wales from the northern to
southern border, north-east and weste