“Isn’t the weather just horrible?” is a common greeting around Parkes these days. The deluge of rain over the past couple of weeks has pushed the total recorded over eight days of rain to 45.8mm. This is 1mm more than the long-term average of 44.8mm recorded over 12.6 days for July. The wettest day so far this month was last Friday when 17mm was recorded, according to the Weatherzone website. This lead to the closure of the Eugowra Road as the Billabong Creek was running over the road. The weir at PAC Park on East Street was flowing very fast and provided some fun for kids on holiday when the rain stopped. School children have been housebound most of the holiday so far with the wet weather. Every bit of sunshine is a good opportunity to get out for fresh air and some exercise. Although it feels like it is raining non-stop, we still need a lot more rain to reach the record of 2010 when 110.8mm fell during July.
To make the wet weather more intense, the average maximum temperature of 12.9°C for this month so far is also lower than the long-term average of 14.3°C. The highest temperature this month was 16°C on the 7th and the lowest temperature recorded this month so far was on 4th July when it dropped to -0.4°C.
According to the weather forecast we might be getting some warmer weather next week with a maximum of 18°C on Monday, hooray! Many communities in the Central West have surpassed seasonal rainfall averages including Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, Wellington, Mudgee and Cowra. The widespread rain has increased many dam levels significantly with some even overflowing.
By Maggi Barnard