Orange has enjoyed its wettest winter since the drought, and the wet months look set to continue into spring as well.
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Across June, July and August, Orange was drenched by 425.8 millimetres recorded at the official Orange weather station at the airport.
July was our wettest month, with 171.8mm of rain soaking the region, while June had 141mm fall and throughout August we had 113mm in the gauge, up from the average of 82mm for the last month of winter.
Our wettest day of winter was last week - 51.8mm fell in the 24 hours to 9am on August 24, sparking widespread damage across Orange and flood alerts for the likes of the Macquarie, Lachlan and Belabula rivers in the region.
It's our wettest winter since 2016, when 462.2mm was recorded in Orange.
We had 269mm fall during last year's drought-breaking winter months.
We've currently got a negative IOD - a phenomenon which typically brings an increased chance of rainfall to southern and eastern Australia.
- BoM climatologist Dr Andrew Watkins
Spring kicks off on Wednesday and the bureau is predicting a top of 20 degrees Celsius for Orange, and BoM climatologist Dr Andrew Watkins said that balmy start to September will signal a trend for spring.
"Nationally, we've seen the wettest winter since 2016," he said.
"Australia's average winter temperature is also expected to be one of the 10 warmest on record, particularly in the tropical north."
Dr Watkins said the main reason behind the Bureau's prediction for a wetter than average spring was a climate driver called the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
"We've currently got a negative IOD - a phenomenon which typically brings an increased chance of rainfall to southern and eastern Australia," he said.
"This negative IOD is expected to persist throughout spring but is currently weaker than the last negative IOD event we saw in 2016, which brought Australia's wettest May-October period on record."
Across August, we averaged a top of 11 degrees in Orange - which is normal for the city for the end of winter - with an overnight average minimum of 1.3 degrees, which is slightly higher than the average of 0.8.
The city's top temperature was 18.2 degrees, while our lowest was minus-3.3 degrees.
In total, Orange has passed 930mm for the year and looks set to pass the 1000mm mark for a second straight year.
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