Tamworth weather: city gets more rain in three months than 2019

The city has received 382.4mm of rainfall so far this year.

That far surpasses last year's 263.6mm of rain, a record dry that smashed a two-decade old record.

Tamworth received less than half average rainfall in 2019.

But in the first three months of 2020 the city has had more than double the three-month average of 184.6mm.

In February 2020 alone, Tamworth recorded 200mm of rainfall at the airport Bureau of Meterology site, including in a series of heavy storms.

January and February were also relatively wet months, with 97.4mm and 83.4mm.

Loomberah farmer Kevin Tongue said he's "absolutely ecstatic" with the seasonal turnaround.

And with subsoil moisture filling up, he said many croppers like him would be looking to make a financial return to claw back drought debt.

"There'll be a lot of winter crop go in if we can get a rainfall event this weekend and one in two weeks time, because that will open the window for canola planting," he said.

"There'll be a huge winter crop if we can get follow up rain for May-June."

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But the chairman of the Tamworth's NSW Farmers branch said it's not time to call an end to the worst drought in Australian history yet.

"I would say let's see what winter has to offer in terms of rainfall.

"We've got dams with water in them, we've got some dams that don't have a lot of water in them and we've got creeks that are not running.

"The Chaffey dam is still sitting at 13.7 per cent. There's been no inflow into that because the ground has been just so dry above it it's just soaked up all the moisture, everything that fell."

Last year was also the hottest year on record for Tamworth.

Nationally, 2019 was by far both the warmest and driest year in Australian history.

Tamworth's driest year on record remains 1994.

BoM blames a "very strong" positive Indian Ocean Dipole for last year's awful climate. The IOD has swung back to even and is forecast to remain neutral through winter.

In an outlook forecast issued last week BoM said Tamworth has a 60 per cent chance of above average April rainfall and an even chance of good rain over the next three months.