News and Alerts Blog

Record October rainfall for Darwin

Written by EWN | Oct 8, 2020 8:15:00 AM

Darwin and surrounds have seen record October rainfall fall overnight, as thunderstorm activity spread into rain during the early hours of Thursday morning.

Darwin Airport has recorded 113mm over the past 24 hours, making it this site's wettest October day in history, eclipsing the previous record of 95.5mm back on 25th October 1969 and just shy of the all-time October record for any Darwin site of 116.6mm which was set back in 1880. Marrara picked up a whopping 177mm overnight smashing the previous daily October record of 58.8mm set back on the 31st October 2010.

This activity has led to flash flooding for parts of the city, with local creeks swelling in response to the localised heavy falls, whilst also cause issues for morning commuters.

Whilst the heaviest falls were concentrated across the greater Darwin region, solid October rainfall was also recorded on the outskirts of town. Darwin Hospital picked up 137mm, Wagait Beach 73mm, Leanyer 99mm, Thorak Cemetery 64mm, Adelaide River34mm, Gunn Point 33mm, Dum-In-Mirrie 30mm, Middle Point 23mm and Noonamah 13mm.

Patchy rain and isolated storms will continue during Thursday, becoming more isolated into Friday across the Darwin region.

Image 1: 24-hour rainfall totals for the Darwin region. Image via BoM