FARMERS across southeast Australia have welcomed the official end of the savage “Godzilla” El Nino with a late autumn surge of rain.

More than 50mm of rain fell in parts of southern NSW and Victoria over the past week, providing a ­well-timed boost to pastures and ­germinating winter crops with warmer-than-average soil temperatures.

The best falls were recorded in Mallacoota, Rochester, Yarrawonga and Swan Hill.

It came as the Bureau of Meteorology declared officially dead the 2015-16 El Nino, which forced many farmers in western Victoria to cut their grain crops for hay last October after a five-day heatwave that sent temperatures close to 40C.

An El Nino, which can lead to hotter temperatures and reduced rainfall across parts of eastern Australia, is caused by warmer sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

The 2015-16 El Nino, which some US scientists labelled “Godzilla”, displayed the warmest sea-surface temperatures since 1997.

A BOM report last week said mid-May marked the official end of the El Nino with most of its modelling pointing to wetter-than-average La Nina conditions forming during winter.

Winter officially starts today and Victorian Farmers Federation grains president Brett Hosking said the ­seasonal outlook was “very positive”.

He said 25mm had fallen on his farm at Quambatook in the past week, bringing his May total to more than 50mm, about 40 per cent more than expected for this time of year.

“It’s really good, it’s allowed us to get the crop in, germinated and up,” Mr Hosking said.

The best falls — which were well timed a fortnight after the general autumn break — were recorded in southern NSW and northern Victoria, with Rochester picking up 47mm in the seven days to 9am yesterday, followed by Yarrawonga (41mm), Swan Hill (40mm), Lockhart NSW and Violet Town (38mm), Boort (37mm), Wagga Wagga NSW (32mm) and Warrenbayne (30mm).

The Mallee and Wimmera also fared well, with 42mm falling at Stawell, 32mm at Murrayville, 27mm at Beulah, Dimboola and Kaniva.

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In southwest Victoria, Warrnambool picked up 30mm, while Gabo Island and Mallacoota in East Gippsland recorded 62mm.

Deniliquin in southern NSW added another 37mm to cement its wettest May ever. Its 100mm equates to more than four times its long-term monthly average, almost doubling the previous May record set in 2010. Overnight temperatures were 3C warmer than average, enabling good pasture and crop growth, locals said.

Elders Deniliquin agronomist Adam Dellwo described the May conditions as “fantastic”, helped by warm soil temperatures that he said brought exceptional growth rates.

“Soil temperatures are warm for this time of year so growth rates are exceptional,” Mr Delwo said.

”We didn’t have any rainfall in April, which is not unusual for here, but May certainly made up for it. The problem now is (with the good weather conditions) farmers are wanting to put that extra paddock of crop in, and it’s really getting too late.”

Most towns across Victoria have recorded a wetter-than-average May. Yarrawonga recorded 126mm, almost four times its monthly average, while Shepparton received two-and-a-half times its normal May rain. Centres more than doubling their long-term May falls included Ararat, Echuca, Hamilton, Mortlake and Swan Hill, as well as Albury, Griffith, Narrandera and Wagga Wagga in NSW.

Horsham, in the heart of western Victoria’s cropping region, recorded 60.2mm, just shy of twice its May average.

At the other end of the scale, a number of centres in Gippsland and southeast NSW failed to meet their long-term average rain totals for May. Orbost, as well as Cooma in NSW, recorded just 70 per cent of their normal May rain, followed by Sale (74 per cent) and Omeo (83 per cent).

In its latest climate outlook report, the bureau said most parts of Australia were likely to have a wetter-than-average June, with models suggesting an average month for parts of southern Victoria.

Meanwhile, more than 234 gigalitres have poured into Murray-Darling Basin storages in the past month.

Authorities have recorded the best stream flows for two years in some cases after early rain saturated dry catchment areas, which are now running off into bigger storages like Dartmouth and Hume dams.

“With the irrigation season finished, releases from the Upper Murray storages have been wound back to minimums and operations are moving into what has traditionally been called storing mode,” a Murray-Darling Basin Authority spokesman said.

MDBA storages are now 29 per cent full.