Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Dean Stewart said automatic weather stations revealed the month of July was the windiest it had been in the 15 years since recording commenced.

He said the reason was the high number of cold fronts that came through the region. 

“Those cold fronts didn’t necessarily produce huge amounts of rain but they did produce a lot of wind, particularly across Warnambool, Mortlake and Ballarat,” he said. 

The last day of the month saw a severe weather warning for damaging winds issued at 4am on Tuesday. 

Warrnambool felt its strongest wind gust of 74km/h at 2.40pm. 

Mr Stewart said the city received above average rainfall for July, with Tuesday’s wet conditions bringing the city over the line. 

Warrnambool received 86.6 mm of rain and the monthly average is 84.9 mm. 

Mr Stewart said a total of 13.8 mm had fallen since 9am on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Portland experienced 152 mm of rain during July  – well above the monthly average of 112 mm.

Port Fairy was below the monthly average of 91mm of rain, with just 74 mm for the month.

“It’s not unusual to get that variation,” Mr Stewart said. 

“There are a number of showers that pass over particular areas compared with others.” 

The first day of August will see a high chance of showers which are expected to clear by the evening. 

West to northwesterly winds averaging 15 to 20km/h will become light in the late morning. 

Daytime maximum temperatures in the south-west are expected to be about 14 degrees. 

It was 6.6 degrees in Warrnambool at 8am and it felt like 2.8.