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Wet start for the dry season
Kim Westcott, Wednesday May 4, 2016 - 14:15 AEST
After a disappointingly dry wet season, the start of the dry season is bearing some healthy rainfall.
Darwin is off to a great start to the dry season, with the heaviest May rain in almost two decades with 49mm in the 24 hours to 9am Wednesday. As much as 47mm of this fell in about an hour, more rain than during all of April. Near Darwin, falls were generally between 25mm and 50mm, with the Botanic Gardens picking up 74mm.
However, it wasn't just Darwin and surrounds that saw impressive rainfall totals overnight. Around 400 km south of Darwin, thunderstorms brought 63mm to Bradshaw and 47mm to the town of Timber Creek.
Across the border into Western Australia, storms also brought pockets of heavy rain in the Kimberley. Flora Valley saw 55mm and the Gibb River 56mm. Halls Creek gained 29mm overnight, which is over double the average monthly May rainfall of 13mm.
Over the next week, both the Northern Territory and the northern half of WA is in for a change from the unseasonably hot and dry conditions of the past month.
During April, the NT experienced its driest and hottest conditions since 2005. In WA's Kimberley, it was a similar story, with the driest wet season since 2004-2005. Several locations in the Kimberley and Pilbara also recorded their hottest April on record.
A broad trough containing large amounts of tropical moisture will take up residence, bringing widespread falls of 15-30mm during the coming week. However there are indications that some places in may pick up weekly totals of 100mm or more.
Under the rain clouds, days will become cooler. Much of the NT and WA will notice a significant departure from the mid-to-high thirties which were so common throughout April and early May.
- Weatherzone
© Weatherzone
2016
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