Mount Gambier has experienced its wettest June on record, surpassing the previous record in 2016 by 2.2mm.

Mount Gambier had a total of 165.2mm of rain in June, with the wettest day on June 15 with 17mm of rain.

Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Jonathon Pollock said the record-breaking rainfall was due to lots of frontal activity that brought above-average falls to much of southern Australia.

“Some of those weather systems were reinforced by tropical moisture from the north-west, and so Mount Gambier has had its wettest June on record,” he said.

“Mount Gambier has got quite a long rainfall record; it has got 81 years of data.

“The previous record was in June 2016 when it had 163mm.

“For the first six months of the year it has been a pretty wet start, Mount Gambier had 435mm since the start of January, and that is higher than usual, but it is not close to the record for this time of the year.”

Mr Pollock said the one-month outlook for the long-range forecast for July shows neutral conditions around Mount Gambier.

“This means there is no strong push towards above or below average rainfall, but further out, the outlook for August shows below average rainfall is likely for much of south eastern Australia, including around Mount Gambier,” he said.

“What the models are expecting is we might have an El Nino, or a positive Indian Ocean Dipole develop over winter.

“Both Pacific and Indian ocean are in neutral phases at the moment, but looking further out at the end of winter the models are expecting they might go into patterns that would normally give a dry impact.

“Typically, when we do have El Nino, we see below average rainfall with below average winter-spring rainfall over large parts of central and eastern Australia and the Pacific Ocean is still in the neutral phase.

“There is about a 70% of one of these El Ninos developing later in the year, and it is that combined with the chances of a positive Indian Ocean Dipole, which is a bit like the cousin to El Nino but in the Indian Ocean.

“The increased chance of that occurring as well is what is driving the drier signal in the later parts in the winter outlook.”

Mr Pollock said Mount Gambier tended to experience lots of rainfall because compared to parts of South Australia further north, Mount Gambier had an increased influence from the Southern Ocean, therefore experiencing more of those weather frontal systems.

According to Elders Weather, June’s lowest minimum temperature was 1.8 degrees on June 20 and the highest maximum temperature was 19.8 degrees on June 4.

Mr Pollock said Mount Gambier experienced cold temperatures because it was often subject to an influence from the south, which is much cooler.

“It is also part of the reason why our weather is a bit more variable than it is further inland because we can get a change in the influence either from the conditions to our north or the conditions to our south,” he said.

“Also, it is the coldest time of the year, but the long-range forecast is showing the temperatures are actually likely to be higher than the long-term average for July and August.

“But you will still have cold mornings now and again.”

Mr Pollock said fog was also expected to continue appearing in Mount Gambier for the remainder of winter.