HOW'S the weather? Who better to ask than two of our most dedicated weather watchers.
"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it," humorist Mark Twain once said.
For most of us, that may be the case, but for a band of dedicated volunteers across the state the weather is hard work.
Around Victoria, the Bureau of Meteorology has close to 80 automatic weather stations and about 40 observers who monitor clouds, visibility and wind data.
However, it is the bureau's 650 volunteer weather readers who work tirelessly.
So important are their meticulous rainfall records, sent in monthly, they paint an intricate picture of our state's weather, capturing data that helps in numerous ways, even with drought assistance.
Celia Burnham's family has been monitoring the skies for more than 150 years, making them the longest running individual weather watchers in Australia.
Celia's great, great grandfather, Andrew Scott, first set up his rain gauge at what was then a 6500ha property at Mt Buninyong, near Ballarat, in July, 1856.
Not a drop of rain has been missed since - the rain gauge on the property, now a 250ha cattle and sheep farm, has remained on the croquet lawn.
Celia has been reading the gauge for almost 30 years, the fifth generation to do so, while her husband, Graeme, occasionally helps out.
"My dad did it for nearly 50 years and I haven't missed a day; I'm sure if I did, though, they (the weather bureau) wouldn't be too angry," she says.
"If there is any rain to measure then I do it at 9am every day. It's just something that has always been there.
"It doesn't take much time. I just keep the measurements and send them in at the end of each month."
Celia says the only disincentive to measuring the rain is the fame.
"I'm quite a private person and I shy away from publicity. If you Google me, my name comes up as a weather watcher," she says.
"We've had every media organisation here and once a helicopter and TV crew landed on the property unannounced."
Celia, who has records dating back to 1910, says there are definite patterns in the weather.
"It tends to go in 10-year blocks, but we do tend to get wetter summers and drier winters now," she says.
While their average rain is 780mm, Celia says the driest year was 1967 with only 426mm, the second worst was 2006 at 471mm. The highest was in 1952 at 1123mm.
At 85, Patho West weather watcher Jim Russell is determined to keep gauging the rain as long as he can.
His family first selected the property - now a 45ha beef farm - in 1871; but it was his father who began recording the weather in 1950.
Jim has been devoutly recording it since 1956.
"I had a hip operation last year, which stopped me from doing it for three months, but other than that I've not missed a day," Jim says.
"Betty (his wife) and Neil (his son) help out when I can't do it too.
"It started in Patho (which is north west of Echuca) in June 1920. A school teacher was doing it and when they moved away my dad started."
Jim says he is very "district minded" and sees the work as community service.
"I've been the secretary of everything - the Patho centenary in 1971, the recreation reserve, the cricket club, the church trustees and the school committee," he says.
Unlike Celia, Jim is not so sure there are patterns in the records.
The highest rainfall he recorded was in 1973 at 808.6mm and 2002 was the lowest at 130.8mm.
"We seem to get reasonable wet years in a row and then later on you might get very dry years. But there's no set pattern as far as I can see," he says.
"I'm pretty confident that the Murray River will flood again.
"People ask me if it's going to rain and I always tell them I'll know when I look at the rain gauge.
"Sometimes I can predict the rain but the TV people (weather presenters) have more information than I do."
Jim says when he can no longer read the gauge, he's not sure who the task will fall to.
"Whether Neil will stop on the farm, I don't know," Jim says.
"But I got through my hip operation, so I'll keep going for a while."
