'WATER' year it's been, Tamworth.
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We've seen records broken, rivers bubble back to life, dams more than double in capacity, and more rainfall than most of us could have imagined heading into 2020.
It's been the wettest year for Tamworth since 2010, and Chaffey Dam is sitting at a level not seen in two years.
Tamworth's main water supply waded into 2020 hovering at about 13 per cent.
The city's residents were on strict Level 5 water restrictions, limited to 150L per person per day.
By the end of December, the dam had more than tripled in capacity and had surged to 41 per cent full, after taking on water by the bucket load.
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The dam had crept up to 15 per cent by late July, before rain finally fell in the right places and pushed the dam to its current level in the second half of the year.
Rain in the region came down hard. According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) weather station at Tamworth airport, the wet stuff fell on 113 days this year.
More than 893mm of rain was notched at Tamworth's BoM station - that's triple the amount of rain recorded in 2019.
It didn't all go swimmingly though - while Tamworth was drenched by one of the wettest Decembers in decades, November was the driest in more than 80 years.
The head of the Peel River - which flows into Chaffey Dam - copped 1368mm of rain across the year, according to the BoM.
That makes 2020 the wettest year in a decade for the head of the Peel.
Chaffey Dam was left to soak up most of the rain that fell in the catchment, when council stopped ordering water for Tamworth from the supply a few months ago.
Environmental releases were briefly paused after tension between the state government and Tamworth Regional Council, but the floodgates opened again when the dam hit 20 per cent in July and 3ML per day has been washing down the Peel River each day since.
Dungowan Dam filled up twice in 2020, and spilled over.
Even below Chaffey Dam, the river flowed in full flight through town at some points.
A "minor" flood saw the Peel lap at its banks in July, and a "moderate" flood saw the river peak at more than 4m in late December, according to Water NSW data.
Although council has been sourcing town water from Dungowan Dam and the Peel River pump station, Chaffey still dictates the water rules we need to live by.
Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal residents will have restrictions watered down to just Level 1 on Monday.
The rising level also allowed the Tamworth Olympic Pool to reopen to the public in December, for the first time in more than 18 months.
Other parts of the region didn't miss out on the deluge either.
A dry and cracked Keepit Dam was rejuvenated by rain and a flowing Namoi River and went from less than one per cent full on January 1, 2020, to more than 36 per cent full at the end of the year.
Split Rock Dam - which services both Manilla and Barraba - went from 0.8 per cent full to almost 10 per cent.