Orange starts 2022 with wettest January in 25 years and below average temperatures

It's the most rainfall the city has seen since January 2006, when the gauges recorded 133.8 millimetres.

It's also more than double the January rainfall average of 64 millimetres.

It rained on 12 of the 31 days of January, with the wettest day on January 7, when 64.2 millimetres fell.

January was cooler too, with a mean temperature of 24.9 degrees, 2.6 degrees cooler than the average of 27.5 degrees.

Not one January day cracked the 30 degree mark - a stark contrast to just two years ago in 2020, when there were 20 days in January that reached temperatures of 30 degrees or more. Last month's highest temperature of 28.7 degrees, recorded on January 2, was well off the sweltering January 5, 2020 record high of 38.6 degrees.

The coolest day in Orange last month was January 19, when the mercury only reached 17.1 degrees.

The lowest minimum temperature recorded was just 9.2 degrees on January 23, but that's still considerably warmer than the chilly 1.1 degree minimum recorded in on January 9, 2004.

The wet start to the year followed Orange's soggy spring in 2021 that included the city's wettest November on record.

Looking ahead, February looks like it may be a little drier than January, as the effects of La Nina begin to weaken. The Bureau of Meteorology says the La Nina event declared late last year is at or near its peak, and expected to come to an end in early Autumn.

The long range rainfall forecast is predicting Orange's February rainfall total won't stray too far from the average of 76 millimetres.

Next week looks likely to be the wettest of the month at this stage, with a high chance of rain from Tuesday through to Saturday. It doesn't look like there'll be too much, though, with only 1-5 millimetres predicted.

Until then, Orange is looking at partly cloudy days with maximum temperatures ranging from 18-22 degrees.

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