[Kingswood]

Last month had an unusual number of winter storms off the east coast of Australia, with a total of four. The month of storms did far more than just beach a ship, as Bruce showed in his close-up of the roof of the building. One caused flooding around Newcastle in NSW, another caused flooding in the Gippsland district of Victoria.

This winter is sure a lively one this year. Today in Victoria was a day of rain, hail, storms, snow and strong winds, and Melbourne had its coldest day for nine years. The news had a farmer who had snow today as an interesting counterpoint to the drought conditions that prevailed earlier this year.

This is coming six weeks after the warmest May on record.

At least one good thing has come of the weather though. It is raining fairly frequently and that is helping a lot in many drought-parched districts. In Melbourne we've about reached the monthly average for July already and there's still two weeks of July to go.