BATHURST'S biggest rainfall in almost a year barely touched the sides in the Macquarie River system after a dry few months in the catchment.
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The 42.2 millimetres recorded at Bathurst Airport to 9am on Thursday, October 5 was the most to fall in a 24-hour time period since the 86.4 millimetres that drenched the region in mid-November last year and which set off days of destructive flooding.
That 86mm fell on a sodden catchment, whereas this week's 42mm fell after just 17mm was recorded in total at the airport in September and 21mm in July (the 42mm recorded in August was close to equal to the long-term mean for that location).
This week's rain also followed three days of unseasonably hot 30-degree temperatures for Bathurst that had exacerbated dry conditions in the district.
The Bureau of Meteorology's river height charts show just the most minor rise for the Macquarie at Bathurst on Wednesday and a similarly slight rise for the Fish River at Tarana on Thursday due to the rain.
The Fish meets the Campbells River (which is impounded at Chifley Dam) just outside Bathurst to form the Macquarie.
Bathurst Regional Council's latest recording for Chifley Dam, meanwhile, says the storage is at 100 per cent, which means it has now been full for more than three years.
The dam dipped under 30 per cent in early 2020, but was back to capacity later that year and is well set up as a predicted hot, dry summer approaches.
Among other major dams in the region, Burrendong, further down the Macquarie from Bathurst, is at 86 per cent, Oberon Dam is at 99 per cent and Wyangala Dam, on the Lachlan south-west of Bathurst, is at 99 per cent.
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