- WEATHER
Australia
- National
- New South Wales
- Victoria
- Queensland
- Western Australia
- South Australia
- Tasmania
- ACT
- Northern Territory
Long Range Forecasts
- WARNINGS
- RADAR
- SATELLITE
- MAPS & CHARTS
- LONG RANGE
Long Range Forecasts
- CLIMATE
Climate Indicators
- NEWS
Weather News
NSW drought update
Ben Domensino, Tuesday March 10, 2020 - 14:51 AEDT
Despite welcome rain in some parts of NSW during the last couple of months, most of the state is still being affected by drought.
In 2019, NSW experienced its driest year on record. This exceptionally rain-starved year featured nine consecutive months with below average statewide rainfall from April to December. While there was some welcome rain in parts of eastern NSW during January, the first month of 2020 also featured below-average rain when averaged across the state as a whole.
Fortunately, February of this year saw widespread rain falling across southeastern Australia and brought NSW its first wetter-than-average month since March 2019.
More recently, the passage of ex-Tropical Cyclone Esther brought more welcome rain in the state's west, with some inland areas already exceeding their long-term average totals for the month.
But despite rain in recent months, more than 90 percent of NSW was still classified as being in one of three drought categories as of Sunday, March 8th. These are: Drought Affected (54.2%), Drought (30.9%) and Intense Drought (8.7%). Of the remaining areas in NSW, 1.1 percent were in the Recovering category and 5.1 percent were in Non Drought.
Image: Map of NSW drought declarations as of March 8th. Source: NSW Department of Primary Indistries
So, while recent rain helped eradicate the drought for some pockets of NSW and brought new plant life in many areas, it hasn't been enough to end the drought for most of the state.
- Weatherzone
© Weatherzone
2020
Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search
Devilishly dry in Tasmania
11:29 AEST Tasmania has had an exceptionally dry start to 2024, with rainfall deficiencies across the entire state as of mid-April.
- 16:41 AEST Dubai deluge: a year's rainfall in a day
- 11:37 AEST Melbourne weather strongly out of character
- 15:03 AEST BoM declares El Niņo over
- 11:29 AEST Darwin's hottest day of the year?
Help with Farmonline Weather
