Many Katherine residents consider the height of the Katherine River today is at a record low for a wet season.
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It is difficult for the Bureau of Meteorology to disagree with that.
Today the river is tracking at 1.41 metres deep, and falling, with no rain in sight to stop it.
For the past two years at least the Katherine River has been well above 10 metres at this time of year.
As veteran Katherine weather watcher Jim Mathieson told us yesterday, he fears the wet season is fizzling out already.
The bureau says it keeps its historical data in yearly and not seasonal chunks.
The maximum the river has reached, 5.82 metres, has been well below anything seen since 1986.
"So that's fairly significant," a bureau spokesman said.
The above graph shows the median, the 25th to 75th percentiles (where heights have been between 25-75% of the year) and the highest and lowest heights during each year for the last 60 years or so.
The median has been sitting at about average for the last three decades or so.
"But keep in mind you're comparing 1.5 months of the wet season with entire years, including the dry season, so the fact that levels have been about 'average' (from a year round perspective) tells you levels are indeed quite low for the wet season."
Our rainfall is well down, but far from record lows yet, in most of the town at least.
Some people have also remarked how unusual it is to have the river so low the low level crossing could be opened.
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