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Cool and wet start to summer in NSW

Ben Domensino, Wednesday December 6, 2017 - 10:57 AEDT

Many locations in southern and central NSW have already doubled their monthly average rainfall for December.

A slow-moving low pressure trough being fed by tropical moisture caused three days of rain and thunderstorms over a large area of the southern Murray-Darling Basin at the end of last week.

While the heaviest falls from this event occurred in northern Victoria, some places in southern NSW set new rainfall records for this time of year.

Griffith's 61.4mm during the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday was its heaviest daily total on record during December.

Grenfell registered 125mm during the 48 hours to 9am on Sunday, which was its wettest pair of days in seven years and the wettest pair of December days since 1922. This was also more than double Grenfell's long-term monthly average for December.

Further west, Pooncarie's 49.8mm during the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday was more than two times its December monthly average of 21mm.

Some of the biggest rainfall totals in NSW from this event occurred over the southern slopes and ranges. During the 72 hours to 9am on Monday, Long Plain registered 151mm and Argalong collected 141mm.

Another low pressure trough will cross NSW during Thursday and Friday this week, causing further showers and some thunderstorms. While the system will produce much lighter falls than the last trough, some sodden areas in southern and central NSW could receive another 5-10mm in 24 hours.

An upper level pool of cold air that contributed to the recent heavy rain also caused a notably chilly start to summer for much of western NSW.

Maximum temperatures in Broken Hill were 3-12 degrees below average during the first five days of this month, ranging from 19.7 to 28.5 degrees. This was the first time in 30 years Broken Hill has been this cool during the first five days of summer.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2017

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