Those rolling thunderstorms, wind, rain and flash flooding that plagued the state in December were not just uncomfortable - at times they were dangerous.
Even now in the first two days of 2024 the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) has responded to more than 115 incidents in the past 24 hours, in response to the impacts of storms and flooding in the north east of the state.
However, all that weather has produced one set of images to bring smiles to the faces of some people in a number of coastal districts.
It's not enough to come out of drought but areas of intense drought have shrunk somewhat.
The Northern Rivers region has seen the Intense Drought category sink back down to 14.5 per cent from a Spring high of an est. 42.8 per cent of all land. While the Drought category fell from 41.6 per cent to 29.1 per cent, with those decreases moving over to being Drought Affected land sitting at 56.3 per cent of the region.
This of course is 2024, the year of accelerated global warming and erratic weather patterns, so it feels like a coin toss as to whether the Australian east coast and the Northern Rivers in particular have three months of destructive storms ahead or a return to below average rainfall until Winter arrives.
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NSWDPI Combined Drought Indicator |
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