Winter breaks weather records for all the wrong reasons

On average, Tamworth and the surrounding area get about 145mm over winter. This year, the region only saw about a quarter of its usual rainfall, with 37.6mm.

August was the driest month, with just 3.2mm. June and July were only marginally better with 16.4mm and 18mm respectively, while the combined total for this year's winter period does not even reach a month's average rainfall.

On average, there are 23 rainy days in winter, but there were only 13 in 2019, with the majority yielding less than a millimetre.

There's been less than half the average rainfall so far this year - usually by September, Tamworth has record more than 446mm. This year, there's only be 198mm.

It goes without saying the total number of rainy days are also down this year, from an average of 60 to 38.

Moree residents could tell this winter was a warm one, but now it's been confirmed - the past winter was the Moree's hottest in more than a century.

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The average maximum temperature for June, July and August this year was 21.2 degrees, just below the record warm winter of 1907 which recorded a mean of 21.6 degrees.

In August alone, the average maximum temperature was 22.5 degrees - two degrees warmer than the August average of 20.5.

This follows Moree's third warmest July ever. And while winter was one of the warmest, it was also one of the driest. So far this year Moree has only received a total of 83 millimetres of rainfall, making it the driest first eight months of any year.

This breaks the previous record dry January to August of 1902, when less than 100mm fell by the end of August. It's also the driest eight-month period over the past 140 years, since records began in 1879.