Heavy rain for eastern Victoria and south east New South Wales late last week triggered major flooding on the Snowy River at Basin Creek, near Buchan.
Eastern and Central Gippsland had more than 50 millimetres of rain over a couple of days.
Parts of Gippsland and much of eastern NSW and south eastern Queensland are sodden.
November was the wettest on record for parts of NSW and south eastern Queensland.
Consequently, root zone soil moisture is in the wettest 10 per cent of records for this time of year for much of Australia's east coast.
High streamflows are likely at many rivers in the eastern Victoria region for December 2021 to February 2022.
Water storage levels in the Murray-Darling Basin are 90.9pc full as of December 15.
Storage levels in the South East Coast (Victoria) drainage division are 53.6pc full, and Melbourne's storage is 90.2pc full.
Rainfall is likely to be above average for January to March for East Gippsland.
But, for most other regions of Victoria, there is no strong push towards wetter or drier than average conditions.
Further north, eastern NSW and eastern Queensland have higher chances of above average rainfall for the first quarter of 2022.
January to March days are likely to be warmer than average for most of Victoria, except in East Gippsland - where they are likely to be cooler than usual.
There are high chances (more than 80pc) for most of Victoria that nights will be warmer than average during January to March.
A La Nina event is underway in the tropical Pacific, and La Nina events increase the chance of above-average summer rainfall for northern and eastern Australia.
The majority of the international climate models the Bureau of Meteorology compares predict the La Nina to be maintained at least until the end of January 2022.
Year-to-date rainfall is tracking above average for the east and parts of central and southern Victoria, tending to below average in the west and north-west, extending into South Australia.
Maximum temperatures have been mostly close to average for much of Victoria, tending to cooler than average in the North East, for the year overall.
The minimum temperatures for the year so far have been warmer than average across the south and south east, cooler than average for parts of the west and mostly close to normal elsewhere in Victoria.
- Jonathan Pollock, Bureau of Meteorology climatologist
