Melbourne has had its wettest May day for 17 years, with more rain expected into the weekend.

Twenty-eight millimetres of rain fell on the CBD on Friday, the most in a May day since 1995, while the top temperature of 11C degrees just before 2.30pm (AEST) made it the city's coldest May day since 2000.

The average rainfall in Melbourne for the entire month of May is 55.8mm.
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Monbulk on Melbourne's eastern fringes recorded the highest rainfall tally, with 46mm falling between 9am and 7pm.

The kind of deluges that in recent years washed out Cedar Rapids, IA, forced the Army Corps of Engineers to intentionally blow up levees to save Cairo, IL, and sent the Missouri River over its banks for hundreds of miles are part of a growing trend, according to a new report released today by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Big storms, leading to big floods, are occurring with increasing frequency in the Midwest, with incidences of the most severe downpours doubling over the last half century, the report finds.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said the climate models it monitors indicate a possible return of the El Nino weather pattern, often linked to heavy rainfall and droughts, in the second half of 2012.

The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage to crops, infrastructure and mines in Australia and other parts of Asia.

Policies and programmes on climate change have failed to address the problems of the vulnerable communities at the grassroots level in the country, a new study said. The findings on "Towards climate change resilience building of vulnerable mountain people and local governments" in Ramechhap shared that there is a lack of effective integrating agency at the central level to push climate change agenda at the local level.

Floods triggered by heavy rains left two people missing and damaged homes in Northwest China's Gansu province Sunday, local authorities said.

From 10 pm Sunday to 1:30 am Monday, floods battered several counties and districts in the provincial capital of Lanzhou, leaving two people missing in Gucheng village and destroying a single home in Shengou village, according to the provincial government's general office.

Flood waters ravaged a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 19 people and destroying hundreds of homes, officials said Sunday.

About 60 other people were missing and rescuers were looking for them across Sar-e-Pul, the capital of a province with the same name, said Sayed Faizullah Sadat, the national disaster director in the area.

Northern Afghanistan gets hit nearly every spring by flash flooding from heavy rains and snow melting off the mountains.

Agriculture output topped the target by 7 million tonnes last year, thanks to good monsoon
After clocking a record food grain production of over 252 million tonne in 2011-12, the government now targets 250 million tonne of production in the crop year of 2012-13.