The first month of spring has further parched the landscape at Dubbo.
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Rain fell on just one single day in September at the city’s official weather station, Bureau of Meteorology data shows.
The five millimetres (mm) of drips and drops that came mid-month did little to turn the season around.
The mean rainfall for September at Dubbo is 46.1mm, and the lowest is 0.6mm set in 2007, bureau data shows.
Lack of precipitation has been all too common this year.
March was the last month to see a rainfall total in triple figures, with 223mm recorded.
The highest rainfall for the third month of the year was 69mm and the skies have not matched it since.
The monthly total for April was 9.4mm and 5.2mm in May.
Winter continued the dryness, with 9.2mm of rain falling in June, 3mm in July and 20.6mm in August.
At the same time as the clouds failed to deliver in September, the mercury rose.
Last month had a mean temperature of 23.6 degrees, outstripping the long-term mean of 21.1.
The minimum temperature dove to minus 1.2 degrees on September 2 but daytime temperatures were also on the rise.
On September 23 mercury catapulted to 35.5 degrees, the hottest day of the month.
Across the region, Nyngan outdid Dubbo for dryness in the first month of spring.
It had just 1mm of rain and Mudgee did little better, recording 3mm.
Parkes had 10mm of rainfall, but Lithgow, Young and Forbes also failed to hit double digits.