The first two months of 'the wet' have failed to live up to earlier hopes but the start of December has opened strongly in Katherine.
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Rain overnight will be recorded against December 1 to open the local account strongly after ‘the dry’ continued longer than forecast by many people.
Katherine’s official weather station at Tindal RAAF Base recorded 22.8mm overnight although totals in the town (Katherine 2mm, Katherine East 9mm) were much lower.
The overnight storm will have hopefully ended a pitiful two months of rain.
November produced a miserly 40.5mm over nine days of Katherine following just 4.4mm in October for a grand total of 44.9mm.
Average rain for those two months is 127.6mm, so actual rain was about a third of what we could usually expect.
Year to date, Katherine has recorded 450.8mm against 592mm at the same time last year and well down on the average of 1079mm.
While the monsoon rains are yet to reach the Top End, Darwin has had a wet start to the season although still well under average with 954mm and it’s raining there this morning.
December has generally been a bountiful rain month for Katherine which can expect an average of 218.3mm.
Katherine’s wettest December was 656mm in 2003 with 72mm the driest, recorded in 2006.