The Katherine region is famous for its Big Rivers of the wet season.
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Any traveler on the Stuart Highway will tell you the famous three between here and Pine Creek are not living up their reputations.
The Cullen, Fergusson and Edith still have obvious sand islands.
They are far from the wet season torrents as described by Jeannie Gunn in "We of the Never Never" as she described her perilous journey from Darwin to Katherine and onwards to Elsey Station at Mataranka.
Of course the equally famous Katherine River is not much better.
The river has barely lapped at the six metre mark on the railway bridge.
Those other famous outback streams, the King, Roper, Adelaide or all pretty much in the same boat.
Although Katherine had about 34mm last night, most of the attention of the weather has been the heat.
The Bureau of Meteorology this afternoon said a severe heatwave is forecast for parts of the central NT and Top End over coming days.
By Saturday, many Top End locations are forecast to break their maximum temperature record for February
Katherine is forecast to reach 40°C on both Friday and Saturday.
Katherine has never reached 40°C before in February.
This heatwave comes on the back of an exceptionally hot wet season, with most locations in the NT currently experiencing their hottest wet season on record.
The monsoon is not expected to return to the Top End for at least the next few weeks, the bureau said today.
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