Weather News

Heaviest July downpour in a century for outback town

Anthony Sharwood, Monday July 8, 2024 - 11:18 AEST

Parts of outback SA, NSW and Queensland have received heavy rain over the weekend, with the town of Menindee in far western NSW recording its wettest July day in 138 years.

Take a look at the map below, which shows rainfall accumulations in the 24 hours to 9 am Monday.

It’s not often you see the highest concentration of green dots (falls of 25 to 49 mm) and orange dots (50 to 99 mm) so far from the coast.

Source: BoM.

The heavy soaking rain was caused by the interaction between a cut-off upper-level low pressure system and atmospheric moisture flowing from the east, which was given extra fuel by unusually warm sea temperatures.

Some of the observations of note to 9 am Monday included:

NSW

Inkerman 62 mm: The weather station close to Broken Hill recorded the heaviest reading in the whole of NSW to 9 am Monday.

Menindee 48 mm: As stated, this was the heaviest day of July rainfall in 138 years for the outback town with a population of just over 500 people, where the entire monthly average rainfall for July is 17.7 mm.

Bourke 41.6 mm: This was the heaviest day of July rainfall in 36 years for the famous outback town on the Darling River, where the entire monthly average rainfall for July is just 14 mm.

Wilcannia 41.2 mm: This was the heaviest day of July rainfall in 74 years for the Darling River town about four hours’ drive downstream of Bourke, where the entire monthly average rainfall for July is 18 mm.

QLD

Hungerford 54 mm: A weather station in the far SW corner of the state, recorded the state-high total to 9 am Monday.

Cunnamulla 28 mm: It was the heaviest July fall for 18 years in the well-known outback outpost.

South Australia saw generally lighter falls but several spots well north of Adelaide saw 10 mm or more.

As you can see on the three-hour loop to 9 am Monday, the rain continues this morning in many of the areas mentioned, and especially in northwestern NSW around Bourke, although a general drying trend will commence from later today onwards.

- Weatherzone

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