And while the cold snap of the past 10 days has shown that to be wishful thinking weatherzone.com's autumn figures reveal the city has enjoyed almost three months of unseasonal balminess.

The average maximum temperature in Orange from March to May was a pleasant 20.76 degrees, up more than two points on the recorded average between 1996 and 2014, with the mercury topping out at 31.8 degrees on Saturday, March 5.

At the other end of the scale this autumn's average minimum daily temperature was 7.4 degrees, up from a mean of 5.83 degrees in the same 19-year period.

And while Orange's lowest autumn's temperature of 2016 - the -1.8 degrees recorded on Monday  - may seem on the chilly side it's almost tropical when placed against Lithgow's -7.7 degrees on the same night, the coldest May reading in the city's recorded history.

Rain gauges in and around the city were scaling similar heights to thermometers, with autumn's total rainfall of 197 millimetres well in excess of the 1996-2014 average of 161.4.

The biggest downpour fell on Monday, May 9, when 33.8 millimetres watered residents' lawns and gardens.

The wet conditions look set to continue, with weatherzone's long-range forecast predicting eight days in June with a medium or higher chance of rainfall, starting with clearing showers on Wednesday and a 90 per cent chance of 5-10 millimetres on both Friday and Saturday.