The rain tumbled down most of the night and coupled with the couple of millimetres recorded during the day helped fill gauges across the city.

The Bureau of Meteorology's official station in Orange, located at the airport at Spring Hill, recorded 23.2mm, however rain gauges at locations in western parts of the city were overflowing, with over 29mm.

The official total for December is nearing 60mm, and takes the annual rainfall total for 2020 to 1098mm, our wettest year since 2016 and a total that exceeds the combined 12-month readings of 2018 (589.6mm) and 2019 (479.6mm), 1069.2mm.

That December, 2020 total for most of the CBD is nearer to 90mm, though, with a scattered deluge last week drenching the city but leaving the BoM's station at the airport bone dry.

The forecast for the rest of Tuesday is for clearing showers and a maximum of 20 degrees, while the rest of the week, including Christmas day, will be mild.

Wednesday will see a top of 21 degrees, while Christmas eve and Christmas day will both peak at 23 degrees with minimal chances of rain.

This year's Christmas forecast is in stark contrast to what we faced in 2019, with a top of 38.9 degrees on December 21 part of a string of 15 days straight where Orange past the 30-degree mark and, for the entire month, received just 15mm of rain.