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Wettest August in years for far western NSW

Esteban Abellan, Saturday August 15, 2020 - 11:08 AEST

After widespread falls last week, another rain band swept much of NSW during Friday, making monthly totals already exceed the average in some places.

Bourke and Cobar collected 13mm from this last rain event, which makes the total rainfall so far this month exceed 30 and 40mm, respectively. Although these amounts may sound modest, they represent the highest monthly rainfall for August since 2014 and 2016, respectively. It is also remarkable that these figures are achieved in only the first two weeks of the month.

Wanaaring, on the Paroo River, has now technically had its wettest August on record (68mm), previously set in 1960 with 67.8mm. It is worth mentioning that the measurements in this town started as far back as 1884.

Further south, Broken Hill has registered 26mm so far this month, which is slightly above the long term average (19mm). However, the current total is still far from reaching its wettest August, which occurred in 1973 with 75mm.

Image: Tropical moisture feeding the surface trough across eastern inland Australia on Friday.

A moisture-laden trough combined with cold air in the mid levels of the atmosphere led to the second rain event this month across western NSW on Friday, with a few thunderstorms in southern inland Queensland.

Although there's still two weeks until next month, mostly dry conditions are expected across the region for, at least, the next 10 days, with a slight chance of getting some rain in the far south of Lower Western.

- Weatherzone

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