At 4pm on Thursday, Orange airport had recorded 30.8mm since 9am with wind gusts up to 67km/h, following on from the previous 24-hour total of 21.2 mm.

Since 6am on Thursday more than 50ml, or two inches, has been recorded up to 3.30pm.

While members of Orange's State Emergency Services were spared any callouts overnight, Unit Commander Rob Stevens said crews were busy on Thursday afternoon with some flooding, a tree down on Burrendong Way and a number of residents with roof leaks.

Mr Stevens urged caution while driving on Kearneys Drive near Phillip Street with some flooding.

"But generally people have been heeding the warning not to drive through flood waters," he said.

Rising water in Summer Hill Creek had forced the closure of Ophir Road between Banjo Paterson Way and Cullya Road with the second crossing under water.

Nearby Bulgas Road and Bargwanna Road near Gosling Creek were also closed.

As mentioned above, the rain started at about 6.30am yesterday was was accompanied by thunder and lightning.

Weatherzone.com meteorologist Angus Konta agreed thunderstorms for Orange in August were rare.

"Rare absolutely," Mr Konta said.

"Right now we've got that really complex, deep low pressure system in the Bight and that's bringing a lot of fronts and troughs through the south east," he said.

Also unseasonal was Thursday's top temperature of 14.2 degrees, which occurred at 3.40am.

"Last night we had troughs sitting over pretty much all NSW and that's dragging in a lot of warm air from further up north near Queensland and it's interacting with that trough and causing a lot of instability," Mr Konta explained.

"With all that cloud cover sitting over most of NSW, it was a very mild night because a lot of the heat wasn't able to escape into the upper atmosphere. It's pretty much trapped at ground level."

Thursday's drenching is expected to ease on Friday but the unsettled conditions will continue through Saturday into next week.

Mr Konta suggested Orange residents get used to the unsettled, unseasonal conditions especially after the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed a negative Indian Ocean Dipole on Tuesday.

This refers to a pattern of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Indian Ocean that cause more moisture-laden air to flow towards Australia.

"That will lead into another wetter-than-average few months," Mr Konta said saying higher temperature and above average rainfall were the calling-cards.

Orange's wettest August was in 2010 when 214.5mm was recorded at the Orange Agricultural Institute with the wettest day that year at month the 12th with 46.4 falling.

Orange's wettest August day was August 2 in 1990 when 76.2mm recorded.

The average rainfall for the month is 93.8mm.

Friday's forecast says showers will clear with a 20 per cent chance of less than one millimetre but rain is expected to return for the weekend.

Cabonne crews are inspecting closed roads throughout the day.

Roads closed include: Euchareena Road, Molong near Boomey Church (signage is on the way); Offner Road, Borenore; Ophir Road, Orange (between Banjo Paterson Way and Lookout Rd); Tantallon Road, Belgravia; Kent Road, Mullion Creek

Water over the road: Clergate Road, Orange, Packham Drive, Manildra, near the Garra Rd intersection., Banjo Paterson Way, Molong, at the crossing near Hunter Caldwell Dr (at Marriot's Cattle Yard); Banjo Paterson Way, between Cumnock and Yeoval (near the Yeoval Tip); Belgravia Road bridge, Belgravia, Bell River Crossing; Burrawong Road, Cumnock; Pecks Road, Molong; Lewis Ponds Creek bridge on White Rocks Road

Trees down: A tree is also down on Spring Hill Road East of Spring Hill Village blocking both lanes. Crews are on their way to remove. A tree is also down on Burrendong Way, on the Orange side of Mullion Creek - however the road is now passable. Police are still on the scene

Remember, do not enter flood waters.

For emergency help, please contact the SES on 132 500.

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