Farmers in the Weddin Shire did not fair much better and are desperately wanting a good fall. The front that arrived on Friday of last week brought with it gale force north to north westerly winds whipping up lots of dust in western NSW causing a heavy dust haze over the town and district. However much to the relief of everyone, light rain began to fall late Friday afternoon and continued into the evening and by Saturday morning the Grenfell Weather Station had recorded a total of 8.4 mm. Your local weather man measured 9.9 mm (39 points). The Greenethorpe property of Gambarra measured 13 mm (52 points) and David Brown was extremely happy with the rain which will boost his pastures and crops. David said he only measured 7.5 mm for July bringing the properties total for the first 7 months to 158 mm. He went on to say that they are still feeding stock.

The Quandialla property of Glen Idol measured just 6 mm on Saturday morning from the change. Allen Kelly said the fall was a little disappointing, however it will help to keep things alive for the week, during which he was hoping that the fronts which are expected to cross the state would bring useful falls of rain. Allen said he only measured 2 mm of rain for July, which was very disappointing. He went on to mention that the crops were desperate for a good soaking, although the canola crops were not too bad. Glen Idol has recorded a total of 155 mm so far this year. The severe frosts that residents of the town have experienced during July have also been severe at Glen Idol, cleaning up many of the young eucalyptus trees they have planted recently. He said that the kangaroos are also a problem.

VERY COLD

TEMPERATURES

If you thought it was cold during July this year, you were not wrong as on several mornings the mercury fell below zero. Grenfell's coldest morning was the 14th when residents awoke to a severe frost and the minimum to 9 am was -4.2 degrees. The next morning wasn't much warmer with a reading of -3.8 degrees. On July 16 the minimum to 9 am was -3.5 degrees and other very cold mornings were July 22 -3 degrees and July 23 -3.6 degrees. The minimum average for July this year was 0.6 degrees and the average since 1965 is 3.3 degrees. The lowest minimum at Grenfell since 1965 was on July 27, 1986 when it dropped to -5 degrees. For July this year there were only two occasions when the minimum temperature  to 9 am was above 10 degrees. On July 6 it rose to a more pleasant 12.4 degrees and 11.1 degrees on July 29.

Grenfell's warmest July day this year was recorded on the 5th when it reached a pleasant 20.8 degrees. Other warm days for July 2018 were 18 degrees on July 4; 18.5 degrees July 17; 18.1 degrees July 27 and 17 degrees on July 28. The average maximum temperature for July 2018 was 14.2 degrees and since 1965 the average is 13.2 degrees. The highest maximum temperature for July since 1965 was 22.5 degrees recorded on July 29, 1975 and the highest minimum to 9 am since 1965 was 14 degrees on July 20, 2016. Grenfell's coldest maximum since 1965 was 2.8 degrees on July 15, 1966.

We are now into our last month of Winter. August has an average of 54.6 mm of rain and local farmers would be very happy if we get somewhere near that amount of rain.

The first few days of August has seen cold mornings with minimum temperature readings to 9 am of August 1, 3 degrees, August 2 -1.7 degrees, August 3 2.5 degrees and August 4 4.2 degrees.

At the time of compiling this July weather report at the weekend, the forecast for last Sunday and Monday was that a low pressure trough will move east over NSW bringing showers and possible thunderstorms. Lets all hope that our farmers receive some very useful falls of rain. However, the forecast for August to October is for below average rainfall.