February is usually the wettest month of the year on the Range, yet in the wake of last year's dry spell it looks like the gods are at it again, because Maleny has just recorded its driest February in 79 years!

According to Patrick Stacey, a volunteer recorder at the Maleny Weather Centre, the township's rainfall over the month amounted to just 46mm, the lowest level recorded during the month of February since 1926 when only 2.5mm fell.   The weather centre has been recording rainfall levels since 1893 and this phenomenon follows a 58-year record for the least amount of rain in the winter season of 2004.

"February is normally by far our wettest month," said Patrick. "But I have a feeling things will balance out over the year rainfall wise."   To put things into perspective, the average rainfall for February over the last 105 years has been 332mm, indicating last month fell a whopping 286mm under.

But Patrick cautioned over such comparisons because over the past century logging operations have removed much of the rainforest and now the climate is less severe, with fewer rainfall extremes.   "The median level is actually less then the average at 260mm during February," he said.     "This a much more sensible figure to use as it washes out the highs and the lows."

But that's still 214mm short of the mark.    So the big question now is are we again heading for a drought and will drier weather become a feature of Maleny's climate and strangle what are already becoming scarce supplies.

Patrick said this was hard to gauge because it was only 30 years back that the Royal Meteorological Organisation, a part of the United Nations, actually standardised the placement and calibration of weather data collectors.    Before that time records were less comparable thus making predictions and modelling harder.   "My gut feeling is that this is just part of a cycle," said Patrick.     "I don't predict a drought for Maleny and I believe that wetter weather is on the horizon."

He stated that Maleny didn't appear to be experiencing significantly less rainfall on an annual basis, but said that with the amount of new developments in the township, water supplies could become an issue.