The wettest March in recent history is on the cards as Sydney clocks up 16 rainy days and more than a week to go
MARCH 19, 2017
THE wettest March in Sydney’s recent history may be recorded with rain falling on 16 of 19 days so far this month, two more days than average for the whole month.
Sydney has recorded 216 millimetres of rain and wet weather is expected to continue for another six days, with thunderstorms predicted...
It has rained in Sydney on 19 of the last 22 days, dumping more than 281 millimetres.
The downfall has already exceeded last year’s monthly total of 193mm and may exceed the last big total March rainfall of 270mm in 2012, the wettest March in almost 30 years.
It is, however, likely to fall shy of the wettest March months on record. In 1870, rain fell for a whopping 26 days.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) wettest March on record was in 1942, when torrential rains broke the drought and dropped 521.4mm on Sydney, easing fears about the water supply.[/b][/U]
“The March average (for wet days) is 14. We have already reached 16 and there are plenty more expected,” a BOM spokeswoman said.
“At the very least it looks unlikely to ease until late in the week.”
Flash flooding hit parts of Sydney last week, with State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers rescuing people trapped in vehicles.
The Bureau predicted a large rainfall of 100-200mm in NSW’s Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast regions.
Elsewhere around the country, showers and storms persisted across northwestern Australia in the wake of cyclone Blanche which produced heavy falls of up to 200mm in the Kimberley early last week.
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