The air in August was drier than in any month on this 14-year record. Relative humidity in the afternoons was only about 25%, well below the usual 37%. The air has been very dry here for more than a year. The record rainfall last spring may have prevented serious bush-fires, but this year could be different.

The daily weather log

Days were not very warm or cold. Most nights were cold, with 18 frosts (usually 15). Two frosts were severe (below minus 3°), but there was also one night as warm as 12.8°.
Extremely low Dew Points (dry air) of minus 5.8° were recorded on the mornings of the 8th and 16th. Only seven lower values have occurred in 14 years.
The only rainfall (11.0 mm) was recorded on the 24th.

 Comparing August months

The monthly mean temperature was a bit low, while the mean night-time minimum was very low: 1.9°, not quite as low as the 1.6° of August 2008. The mean early morning Dew Point (-2.0°) was a new record low humidity for any month, beating easily the drought month of July 2002 (-1.4°).
Thirty-nine percent cloudy mornings is a retreat from the August record of 55%, set in 2008 and 2011.
The rainfall of 11.0 mm is very low, in the 15th percentile for August. While the 12-month rainfall total to date is still extremely high (1 metre), the 6-month total is now low (236 mm).

Data. Rainfall data is from Manilla Post Office, courtesy of Phil Pinch. Temperatures, including subsoil at 750 mm, and other data are from 3 Monash Street, Manilla.