Rain spread throughout Victoria overnight and has been very welcome in most parts, which have had a dry summer and start to autumn. Rain was heaviest in the northeast, with excess of 50mm, much like last week, but this time it has spread to all corners of the state. Some areas have had their biggest falls since winter or even last autumn. Gardens, parks and paddocks have had a badly needed watering in many areas, including Melbourne, where widespread 15-to-30mm fell. Coldstream, Moorabbin and Tullamarine had their heaviest rain since winter, picking up 25mm, 23mm and 19mm respectively. Even though the state's northeast has done relatively well during the last several months compared to the rest of the state, some places last night had some unusually heavy rain. Wangaratta gained 36mm, ninety percent of its monthly average and its heaviest rain since last autumn. The driest region last night was the Mallee where rain amounted to less than 10mm generally. However, this is still the biggest rain since spring for Mildura, Ouyen and Swan Hill. It has generally only been central and northeastern parts where last night's rain was unusually heavy for this time of year. It was the heaviest March rain in 12 years for Moorabbin and the heaviest March rain in 24 years for Wangaratta. Very warm air across Victoria yesterday became very moist east of about Melbourne last night as a trough drew closer to the state, enabling rain to be as heavy as it was. The band of rain has now cleared east of Melbourne and Echuca and is continuing moving east. During the rest of today a further 10-to-20mm is likely in parts of the North East and East Gippsland districts. This will take much of the region close-to-or-above their monthly average. Looking ahead to Easter weekend and next week, the state will be generally dry under a weak high pressure area. There will be just a few showers in the south and the odd shower reaching the north due to two weak fronts. On the whole, falls will be less than 5mm in the south and less than 2mm in the north.