About 95 per cent of the state will receive some rain in the next two days as nearly the same area suffers from the continuing long big dry.
The rain started in western NSW last night, with Broken Hill picking up 4mm, with the south-west corner getting the first of the early rain from Griffith south. By 9am today Corowa had 8mm, Pooncarie 7mm and Balranald 5mm.
Weatherzone forecaster Brett Dutschke said over the next day almost 95 per cent of the state would get between 5mm to 10mm of rain.
“Ninety-five per cent of the state will get something in this event,” Mr Dutscke said.
“Most areas of the western slopes will get at least 5mm, with some over 10mm. The rain will continue into Wednesday night.”
The only areas to miss out will be in the far north-west of NSW, some parts of the South Coast and North Coast.
Snow will fall down to 1200m today and tomorrow in the Alpine areas, but only a couple of centimetres is expected because of the dry air mass accompanying the system.
There will be light frosts on the back of the rain event later in the week and into the weekend.
Griffith terraAg owner/agronomist Mark Zanatta said even 5mm to 6mm would help some crops that had already been dry sown into the ground in the Riverina. Early canola was struggling. Some wheat and barley crops had struck and the rain would help it along. “We probably need another 15mm to 20mm. It’s not write-off time yet, as it was always going to be a late season,” he said.
Many producers have been desperately seeking hay from Victoria to keep stock going, with the Newell Highway full of hay trucks heading north. Supply has suddenly turned tight in the last two weeks and prices have steadily risen. Top lucerne hay is almost impossible to buy. Some hay sellers in the central-west have run out of hay and have no one to recommend to source it.
John Ellicott
journalist and author
journalist and author
