It wasn't huge, but the local region did receive some much-needed rainfall at the conclusion of the weekend, as a band of thunderstorms rolled across Western NSW.
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The Mudgee Airport weather station had 9.6mm collected in the rain gauge on Monday morning, which wasn't a complete soaking but still came as some relief considering that just 5mm was recorded for the entire month of October.
It was also the wettest 24-hour period at the location since mid-September.
While the Gulgong Post Office weather station hit double figures with 11mm. And Nullo Mountain, in the Rylstone/Kandos area, had 26.4mm.
The local figures weren't the biggest brought by the thunderstorms though, with some of the state's most parched towns receiving some welcome downpours. As much as 70 millimetres of rain fell at Brewarrina, while Bourke had 92mm across the two days and Cobar received 42.0mm.
Locally, rainfall will remain at a premium - with mostly sunny weather predicted for the remainder of the week. And longer term there's not much relief in sight, with the Bureau of Meteorology's outlook pointing to below average rainfall across most of the country for November which is likely to continue into summer, with December to February possibly drier than average for most of eastern Australia.
Of course little dent was made in the long-term rainfall deficiencies, with the Mudgee station still nearly 250mm behind its average January to November figure, and the Gulgong and Nullo Mountain locations similarly in arrears.
Accordingly, next Monday (November 11, 2019) the Mid-Western Region will move to level two water restrictions.
This will result in changes to what's allowed when it comes to; watering lawns and gardens; washing cars at home; topping up swimming pools; and external cleaning of non-residential premises. More information can be found at midwestern.nsw.gov.au/resident-services/Water-Services/level-2-water-restrictions/
