Thanks to the enormous downpours Parkes - and the rest of the state - has experienced this past week, the town has smashed its long term monthly rainfall average.
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Parkes has recorded 76.6mm of rain at the Parkes Airport since Friday afternoon (as at 8pm Thursday).
But some falls have been much bigger in town or further afield in the Parkes Shire, with residents recording up to 90mm straight after the weekend.
It brings October's monthly total to 92.6mm so far with two days of possible thunderstorms still to come.
Last October's total was only 13.4mm.
The town's long term monthly rainfall average for October is 49.7mm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).
Friday afternoon into Saturday morning by far was the biggest downpour and the highest for the month at 35.4mm recorded at the airport.
It wasn't quite close enough to Parkes' daily rainfall record for an October day of 45mm, recorded on October 31 in 2005.
Sunday brought in another 17.6mm, Monday 14.4 and Tuesday 4.2.
While the airport shows no rain up until 9am on Wednesday, rain gauges in town might say otherwise.
Overnight to 9am on Thursday came in at five millimetres.
Overall, it's the most rain Parkes has seen since April, with that month tallying a massive 154.8mm.
And the last time Parkes has recorded more than 80mm of rain for an October was in 2005, at 112.2mm.
Parkes Mayor Ken Keith OAM had already recorded 100mm of rain on his farm just to the west of the town.
"It's going to make life tricky for farmers because the ground is so wet now getting machinery on to harvest," he said.
"Where the crops still have any greenness, they're probably getting some benefit out of it."
Harvest has already begun in the northern and western parts of the Parkes Shire.
"It would have been good a month ago this rain and then you would have had an absolute bumper harvest," Cr Keith said.
"September just didn't really produce much rain at all, we only had 20mm over the whole month, it was just not enough for the thick, heavy crops to get enough moisture."
The BoM recorded 26.2mm for Parkes for all of September, 17.2mm below the September monthly average.
Christine Little
I love sharing people's stories, particularly local stories that are special and important to the people of Parkes. If there is one thing I have learnt in my 10 years of community journalism, it's that stories are everywhere. All it takes is a good story teller to make it worth reading. Email: christine.little@parkeschampionpost.com.au
I love sharing people's stories, particularly local stories that are special and important to the people of Parkes. If there is one thing I have learnt in my 10 years of community journalism, it's that stories are everywhere. All it takes is a good story teller to make it worth reading. Email: christine.little@parkeschampionpost.com.au
