More than 200mm of rain fell at the Maitland Airport weather station in February - the most monthly rainfall recorded since the station opened in July 2016.

The last time more rain was recorded at the previous weather station (Maitland Visitor's Centre) was January 2016 when 405mm fell.

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But it came after the summer season started in worrying fashion.

Just 0.6mm of rain was recorded at the airport in December - the least amount of monthly rain since July 2017 when the same amount fell. The lack of rainfall plunged the region into record low dam levels and led to the introduction of level 2 water restrictions, which have since been wound back.

December also had the most days over 40 degrees. There were six 40 plus days in December, four in January and two that kicked off February.

The hottest day of the season was January 4, when the mercury reached a sweltering 45.1 degrees - the hottest January day recorded at the airport weather station.

It got up to 44.3 degrees on February 1 and the warmest December day was the 21^st when the temperature reached 44.2 degrees, which was also the hottest December temperature on record at the station.

Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Dr Andrew Watkins said summer was the tale of two halves, and two main climate drivers.

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"At the start of summer, we saw both a very strong positive Indian Ocean Dipole and a near-record negative Southern Annular Mode, and that resulted in both the warmest and driest December on record, with significant fire weather throughout many parts of the country," Dr Watkins said.

"In January we saw those two drivers return to neutral levels, plus a very late arrival of the northern monsoon which finally brought tropical moisture to the continent.

"As we often see once the monsoon arrives in the north, some of that tropical moisture was dragged south leading to some of the good recent rainfall over the country's east.

"The rainfall helped contain many of the long-lived bushfires in the east and helped ease drought conditions in some locations. But many inland regions experienced only patchy rainfall and we still need to see sustained rainfall to relieve drought in many areas."

The Bureau's outlook for autumn shows both daytime and overnight temperatures are likely to be above average for most of the country, while parts of southern and south eastern Australia are showing a slightly increased chance of above average rainfall in the coming three months, particularly in March.