MOIST onshore flow has brought rainfall to southern Victoria over the past week but there has been nothing significant for the northern part of the state.
Rainfall so far in April has been disappointing with most of northern Victoria, extending through to central New South Wales, in the driest 10pc of records for April.
The only areas on track for near average monthly rainfall are the south-west and an area extending east from Melbourne into West Gippsland.
Daytime temperatures have been close to average for most of Victoria this April.
But they have been warmer than usual in the north-west and across the border in southern South Australia.
Nights have been cooler than average across northern Victoria and for almost all of New South Wales with most of the western half of NSW, away from the coast, in the coolest 10pc of April mean minimum temperature records.
The first four months of 2021 have been cooler than average - the year-to-date mean maximum temperature is lower than average for the eastern two-thirds of Victoria.
Meanwhile the mean minimum temperature is lower than average for parts of the north and north-west.
January to April minimum temperatures have mostly been close to average for the rest of the state.
There are still pockets of above average root-zone soil moisture along the south-west coast across southern central Victoria and in West Gippsland.
But further north, soil moisture decreases to near average for southern parts of the Wimmera and much of East Gippsland before decreasing to below average for parts of the north and most of the north-west.
Water storage levels in the Murray-Darling Basin were 56.6pc full as of April 27; South East Coast Victoria water storage levels were 38.6pc full and Melbourne's water storage levels were 72.1pc full.
While rainfall is expected to be below average for parts of Victoria during May, most of Australia has no strong indication of above or below average rainfall in the months ahead.
This is the result of Australia's most influential seasonal climate drivers currently being in a neutral phase and likely to remain so. The El Nino-Southern Oscillation is neutral and there are no signs of El Nino or La Nina developing in the coming months.
The majority of international climate models surveyed by the Bureau of Meteorology forecast a neutral Indian Ocean Dipole for winter.
