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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
World
Everton Fox

Severe storms drench southern Australia

Clouds grow over the Lakeside Athletics Stadium in Melbourne as storms head towards South Australia and Victoria [EPA]

Parts of Australia are enduring record breaking summer heat this week with Brisbane and Sydney, both of which set records for the hottest January on the books.

And while February may yet follow suit for these two cities, record books elsewhere have been awash with high rainfall totals.

This weekend brought notable rainfall across the states of South Australia and Victoria following a series of violent storms that brought a month's worth of rain to parts of the region.

Nullarbor in South Australia recorded 50mm of rain on Saturday, well over three times its February average of 14mm.

The next day the state capital, Adelaide, received 29mm of rain - nearly twice its February norm of just 15mm.

In fact, Adelaide is currently enduring its wettest summer on record, with 164mm of rain so far this season.

The all-time record, set in 1925, stands at 173mm.

Across the border, Victoria's state capital was also drenched. Some of Melbourne's eastern suburbs recorded around 50mm of rain. The city itself notched up 32mm of rain in just 24 hours.

The storms in Victoria were violent enough to urge authorities to issue warnings for all of Melbourne's beaches after faecal matter was washed up into Port Phillip Bay.

The Environment Protection Authority expect the situation to last several days despite the fact that the weather is now improving as the wet and windy weather is gradually replaced by drier quieter conditions.

Temperatures in Melbourne should be back up around 34C by Wednesday. 

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