The Northern Territory wet season is deemed to be the period between October 1 from one year to April 30 off the next. The dry season is designated as the period from May 1 to September 30 each year. On paper, our wet season is seven months ling, with the dry being of five months duration.

There are lots of vagaries about seasons, particularly with seasons that are unseasonal. There are ‘dry wets’, and ‘wet dry’s’.

This column will relate to Darwin, so there will be wide, wide variations that happen, depending on where people are located. I will be drawing statistics from the NT News weather comments and from observations made at our home in suburban Darwin.

Where better to start than at the beginning of the new wet season.

OCTOBER

The annual average rainfall for Darwin during the month of October is 71.1 mm.

We have started well for October this year, with 22 mm of rain recorded at the Darwin Airport on October 2.

In October 2019, Darwin recorded only 20.2 mm of rain which fell across three rain days. The rainfall pattern was different in 2020. Total rainfall for Darwin Airport was 162.0 mm, which is 229% of the long-term average (then 70.7 mm). Rain fell on 9 days at our place during that month.

It will be interesting to see what the month brings forward.