Katherine came perilously close to another weather record on Monday morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The minimum temperature reached 27.3 degrees at 6.30am and that's as far as it went.
It was still 35 degrees at midnight.
But the Bureau of Meteorology says it was close but no cigar, the record, achieved back in 1988, is 29.3 degrees.
They did agree the minimum, if you can call it that, several degrees hotter than average.
This comes after Tindal, where our measurements are now made, experienced its hottest day in recorded history on October 17 with 42.7 degrees.
We repeat, however, Katherine has records held longer than just Tindal and the town's heat record remains 46.2.
Then again the town was celebrating this morning with our best rain since May falling very early and almost reaching 2mm.
A reminder, 97.2mm is the November average.
The bureau said most people in the Darwin, Palmerston and rural area did a lot better than Katherine with the first widespread rainfall so far this wet season, dumping 30-50mm into many rain gauges.
The highest overnight total was 118mm at Point Stuart, with 49mm at Darwin Airport - so far this month, we've recorded just over half of the average total November rainfall of 143mm at the airport.
A trough moving through the base of the Top End was to thank for the rainfall last night, but a drier surge of air will follow, so there's only a slight chance of showers or storms for the next week in the NW Top End.
The drier air means fewer clouds, so the temperatures will rise with day time maximums of 34-35°C for Darwin, 36-37° in the rural area, dropping only to around 26°C overnight.
Katherine's maximums will reach 40 degrees.
Severe fire weather conditions will affect the Carpentaria and Gregory districts until Thursday, and possibly during the weekend too and a low-intensity heatwave is forecast for much of the Top End towards the weekend.
The positive Indian Ocean Dipole is the main climate factor driving weather conditions during the build-up, and will mean continued hotter and drier than average weather conditions, although we can expect to see more showers and storms continue through this month and next.
Once the first active monsoon burst arrives (likely to be early in January), all climate influencers (ESNO and IOD) are expected to be neutral, which means we can expect a typical wet season between January and April.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday at 6am from the Katherine Times. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.