Upper and Lower Hunter receive decent rain as the long-range forecast paints a dry picture

While Maitland received far less than parts of the Upper Hunter - Merriwa recorded 21 millimetres and Scone had 24 millimetres at its Stony Creek station - the 8.6 millimetres that did fall over Wednesday night and Thursday morning will help restore soil moisture at a time when levels were falling.

It was a windy and cold day at the Slow Food Earth Market in The Levee on Thursday morning, but there was no doubt that the rain was well received.

Mount Barrington received similar rain to the Upper Hunter, with 23 millimetres recorded. The Upper Allyn had 11 millimetres, Dungog had 9.6 millimetres and Seaham had 8.5. Singleton had 14 millimetres, Broke received 15 and Pokolbin had 12. Williamtown received 7.

The storm came on the same day the Bureau of Meteorology released its rainfall and temperature long-range forecast for October to December.

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The Bureau is predicting warmer than average days and nights for most of the country including unusually high maximum temperatures and above average minimum temperatures.

It went as far as saying there was a 60 to 80 per cent chance of below average rainfall between now and the end of the year.

The Bureau said the long-range forecast was influenced by El Nino and positive Indian Ocean Dipole events as well as record warm oceans globally.

"Models indicate further warming of the central to eastern Pacific [Ocean] is likely, with sea surface temperatures remaining above El Nino thresholds until at least early 2024. El Nino typically leads to reduced spring rainfall for eastern Australia," a statement said.

"All models indicate that this positive IOD will persist until at least the end of spring ... When a positive IOD and El Nino occur together their drying effect is typically stronger and more widespread across Australia."