City breaks dry record

Bunbury is experiencing its driest year on record.

The city has recorded only 425mm of rainfall from January to October, the lowest recorded rainfall for the period since records began.

The previous driest year for the period occurred in 1940 when Bunbury received 459mm of rain.

Last year Bunbury had recorded 664mm of rainfall, for the same period, still well below the average of 803.8mm.

Weather bureau climate information officer John Relf said the dry conditions could be attributed to the high pressure systems that have been passing over the region.

It was the fourth driest October on record for Bunbury with only 8mm of rain recorded.

The average rainfall for October is 50.6mm and the least rainfall for the month was 1969 when only 4.5mm was recorded.

October also had the second highest average maximum temperature on record with 21.9C.

This is compared to the average of 20.7C.

The average minimum temperature for October was 8C, more than 1C cooler than the average of 9.2C.

The area from Jurien Bay to Bremer Bay received the lowest January to October rainfall since records began in 1900.