A total of 1455.8mm of rain fell across the 12 months of 2021, eclipsing the soaking the region endured in 1973 (1442mm) but falling short of some seriously wet records on some long-range rainfall data for Orange.

According to district records dating back to 1890, the 1950 calendar year remains the city's wettest on record, with 1666mm poured out of rain gauges in Orange, while 2010 (1580.4mm) and 1956 (1518mm) also rank higher.

The big wet Orange recorded in 2021 is thanks largely to above average rainfall throughout winter and then again later in the year, with the 317mm recorded in the penultimate month of the year a record for November, while Spring was also our wettest in over 70 years with 457.6mm recorded.

And we could be in for another wet year in 2022, too.

The Bureau of Meteorology's latest long-term outlook for weather across Australia indicates rainfall totals for the first three months of the year are "likely to be above median".

While parts of coastal NSW will likely see historical rainfall levels in that time.

That outlook is based on the impact of the current La Nina event, which alongside the positive Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the MJO over the western Pacific, is, the BoM says, "likely influencing the above median rainfall outlooks" for 2022.

That same outlook also says there's an increased chance of unusually high minimum temperatures (in the top 20 per cent of historical records) for January to March over most of Australia.

As of December 24, dams across Orange - Suma Park, Spring Creek and Gosling Creek, as well as Lake Canobolas - are sitting at 100 per cent capacity.

While the city's collective use of water remains below the newly adopted permanent water saving standards Orange City Council adopted in June.

A mark of 180 litres per person, per day is acceptable in Orange, but as of December 23 residents were averaging around 167 litres per person, per day.

Looking back to 2021, temperature wise, across the board Orange enjoyed a cooler year than average.

The only month that sat above its annual average temperature was August, which in 2021 recorded an average top temperature of 11.3 degrees Celsius. That's up 0.1 degrees on the 11.2 mean.

Orange's hottest day in 2021 was on January 24 when 33 degrees Celsius was recorded.

The city's coldest start was on July 22 when we woke to a very brisk minus-5.6 degrees while our chillest day was that memorable snow day on June 10. The mercury just managed to hit 3 degrees Celsius during the day.

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