Rain rain, fall again

The day it rained

Jano Gibson
May 17, 2007 - 1:02PM

Map shows the amount of rain recorded in the 24 hours to 9am this morning.Parts of drought-stricken NSW are expected to receive their biggest downpour in more than seven years, with the mayor of one district describing the situation as "the brightest it's looked for a considerable amount of time"."Mate, they are rejoicing, I can assure you," the Central Darling Shire Council mayor, Ray Longfellow, told smh.com.au from the Ivanhoe post office, where rain was continuing to fall."I can tell you there was a few smiles over the Weet-Bix this morning between people who have been doing it extremely tough. There's no two ways about it. It's very timely really."Towns in the state's west, such as White Cliffs, Wilcannia, Cobar, Bourke and Nyngan, have not experienced more than 50 millimetres of rain in a 24-hour period since 2000, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Neale Fraser said. But in the next 24 hours, some of the towns are forecast to reach, or even eclipse, that mark."It's looking promising," Mr Fraser said. "Fifty millimetres - in the old scale it's two inches. It will have quite a big impact."He said White Cliffs received 32 millimetres of rain and Wilcannia 13 millimetres in the 24 hours until 9am.Tibooburra received 44 millimetres before 9am and a further 16 millimetres until midday, he said.Rain was continuing to fall in the region, he said.Cr Longfellow said the drought had taken its toll on the Central Darling community - "the biggest council in NSW, about the size of Tasmania with the tide out"."Property people in general are a pretty resilient type of people that don't like to show their emotions."However you can see the effects of the drought have certainly shown in the community with different people."It's just pleasing that this will be the tonic that is needed to sort of bring everybody back and put a bit of a smile on their faces."
He said people had been telling him it was the "best start we've had for ages", with the ground on some properties saturated."There's still that warmth in the ground and it certainly hasn't turned cold, so it looks as though we will get away with a flying start this autumn," he said.AAP reports: Farmers at the top of the Murray-Darling Basin won't be able to plant winter crops unless rain falls soon, according to a new agribusiness survey.The National Australia Bank's farm outlook says seasonal conditions remain poor across the continent, but the drought is worst on the Darling Downs of southern Queensland."The area is entering its seventh year of continual drought seasonal downturn, with current conditions dictating the prospect of no winter crop," the survey says. And the picture, with some exceptions, is not much better elsewhere.Victoria's Mallee and Wimmera regions have received some autumn rains but follow-up falls are desperately needed."Across the state livestock numbers are down with herd rebuilding efforts now largely stalled until spring,'' the survey says of Victoria.In NSW there has been a slight improvement but water storages remain critically low."In contrast, conditions are favourable along the coast and around average in the key New England and Monaro grazing areas."The best conditions are in South Australia where there has been good rainfall in most regions.But winegrape production on the lower Murray River is expected to fall because of reduced availability of irrigation water.The key wheat state of Western Australia continues to struggle with the north and central wheatbelt needing rain."In contrast, rains have boosted cropping programs and livestock production in the southern wheatbelt, southern WA and Esperance