While North East Victoria has been spared extreme heat this October, many heat records have been set over a large area of inland Australia.
While Wangaratta's top temperature for the month so far has been 31 degrees on 16 October, Coober Pedy recorded 43.9 degrees on 19 October which was its hottest day in October since 44.8 degrees on 31 October, 1995.
Bourke in central NSW recorded 44.8 degrees on 21 October which was not only a record for October, but also the highest ever October temperature recorded in NSW over the past 148 years - the previous highest in Bourke was 43.3 degrees in 1898 which saw very hot conditions over a wide area of eastern Australia from November 1898 to March 1899 apart from a wet unsettled January in Victoria.
Birdsville recorded 46.1 degrees on 21 October, which was the hottest on record for October surpassing previous records in 1958, 1988 and 1995.
It has been very dry and much warmer than normal in Sydney in October after all that heavy rainfall since the beginning of this year.
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The mean maximum temperature in Sydney up to 22 October reached 37.9 degrees and this will break the record warmest October of 1988.
Past cases of October heat records over the interior of the nation have set up very unsettled conditions over most of Victoria and Tasmania and this happened previously in 1958, 1988 and 1995 when heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds were recorded by the second week of November.
Last Wednesday's storm only delivered a few mms of rainfall in North East Victoria but 37mms fell at Wilsons Promontory, taking the October total to 169.4mms - the wettest for October since 2013.
The storm's strong winds reached up to 124kph at Wilsons Prom, with Wangaratta recording a maximum gust of 82kph at 5.30pm, which was the strongest gust in October since 91kph in 2013.
