Australia as a whole recorded its driest September on record according to recently released Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) data.
Over the nation the BOM said September rainfall was 70.8 per cent below the 1961-1990 average making it the driest September since record keeping began over 120 years ago in 1900 as the recently declared El Nino weather event in the Pacific Ocean continues to hamper rain events from forming.
The rainfall deficit was pronounced in the southern two thirds of the country where early spring rainfall is usually a significant part of annual rainfall.
Only tiny parts of northern Australia exceeded average rainfall and given it is the dry season there only small amounts of rainfall are required to push figures above average.
However, there has been a big turnaround in some parts of the south-east of the country in the past week with record 24 rainfall tallies recorded in parts of north-eastern Victoria and Gippsland as a slow moving low dumped over 150mm in some parts of Victoria and over 60mm over parts of the Riverina.
The rain has caused flooding in places but was also a relief in Gippsland as it helped extinguish fires that started last weekend following a significantly hotter and drier September.
The extraordinarily dry September, which saw virtually all the country record below average rainfall, exacerbates moisture deficiencies in key agricultural zones such as south-west Western Australia and parts of south-eastern Australia which have been developing since May, with the exception of parts of Victoria and South Australia that had a wet start to winter.
Soil moisture levels reflect this, with September soil moisture in the lowest 30 percent of years for much of Australia, away from the north and central inland areas.
Streamflows have also suffered, with low streamflows observed at sites in the south and south-eastern New South Wales, south-eastern Queensland, scattered sites in south-west of Western Australia, and most sites in Victoria and Tasmania.
Generally speaking, the triple La Nina event from 2020 to early this year has meant water storage levels are in a reasonable position in most areas, however they are low in parts of southern and central Queensland and were even becoming a problem in parts of south-eastern NSW in spite of last year's big wet up until this week's heavy rain.
Residents of Perth are also starting to be put on notice regarding water availability, with the city's storages dipping alarmingly.
Looking ahead, it is likely to be more of the same, with the BOM forecasting from November to January that below median rainfall is likely to very likely, 60 per cent to greater than 80 per cent chance, for much of western, northern and southern Australia, with small areas of northern New South Wales having a slightly increased chance of above median rainfall.
The dry September was caused by a dominant series of high pressure systems, which brought settled, warm conditions over swathes of the country.
NSW was one of the worst hit states, with total rainfall 82.6pc average, while in Victoria rainfall was 67.1pc below average.
In South Australia it was the seventh-driest September on record.
The BOM said new areas of rainfall deficiency emerged as a result of the dry September, including SA's west coast and the central district of Victoria.