Tocal and Paterson on Wednesday both received their highest single day of rainfall since March 2018.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
More than 68mm of rain was recorded at Paterson Post Office, while Tocal received a welcome 55.8mm. The gauge at Maitland's Belmore Bridge recorded 49.5mm for the day.
The last time Tocal and Paterson received more rainfall in one day was March 22, 2018, when Tocal received a whopping 124.4mm and 98.2mm fell in Paterson.
Wednesday's downpour followed a similar amount of rain on August 31, when 44.5mm hit the Belmore Bridge, 45.2mm was recorded at Paterson and 45mm was received at Tocal.
Both August 31 and Wednesday's rainfall totals were above the long term averages for their respective months at Tocal. The long-term August average at Tocal is 37.3mm, while the September mean is 48.0mm. Long-term averages were not available for the Belmore Bridge and Paterson Post Office.
The recent rain has also had a slight impact on the region's dam levels.
Related: The fight to survive the drought
The total storage across Hunter Water's four storage sources was 65 per cent on Thursday - up 1.2 per cent from the previous week.
But while the rain has been welcome for farmers and others alike, the Bureau of Meteorology says it's not enough to get excited about at this stage.
"For drought affected areas it will take consistent above average rainfall for the coming months to reduce the large rainfall deficiencies," a BOM spokesperson said.
Hunter Water says average rainfall over the next few months would put the storage total level at about 60 per cent by March 2020, but a low rainfall outlook could see the total drop to about 40 per cent.
The Bureau says that Maitland has less than a 35 per cent chance of recording higher than median rainfall and more than an 80 per cent chance of exceeding the median maximum temperature across the next three months.
Rain is expected to continue this weekend and potentially into the start of next week, however the predicted rain totals for Maitland are low.