Orange's big wet November just keeps getting wetter.
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More heavy downpours on Thursday and Friday have pushed the city's total rainfall for November to a whopping 300.8mm.
From 9am Thursday to 2pm Friday, Orange Airport recorded 51.8 mm of rain, which fell on already sodden ground.
The city has now received five times its average rainfall for November, making it Orange's wettest November since records began at the airport in 1996.
So far, there have only been nine rain-free days in November and it looks like there may not be many more.
The Bureau of Meteorology says there's a 60 percent chance of rain on Saturday and 70 percent chance on Monday and Tuesday, with 0-3mm possible on both days. Sunday is looking like the best bet to get the washing dry, with only a 40 percent chance of 0 to 0.2mm.
Orange's wet November has helped push the city's annual rainfall to 1374.6 mm as of 2pm Friday, making it the seventh wettest year on record so far.
And given the recent declaration of a La Nina weather event, it looks like the rain isn't going away any time soon.
According to the BOM's December to February rainfall outlook, there's a 62 percent chance of above average rainfall for Orange over summer.
The persistent wet weather is keeping the Orange Branch of the State Emergency Service on its toes, with its volunteers responding to five flood rescues near Wellington on Thursday night alone.
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"Initially we'd been called to back up the Wellington unit at a rescue just south of Wellington with the rescue of a person trapped with some animals," SES Orange Unit commander Inspector Rob Stevens said.
"Then once the guys got on site, a further four flood rescues came in simultaneously just north of Wellington, so they proceeded north from there to take care of them."
In between responding to call outs as they come in, the focus for the Orange SES team is now on assisting teams in Molong, Eugowra and Canowindra.
"All those locations have current active flooding or are expecting flooding in the next 24 hours so we're doing a fair bit of prep work," Mr Stevens said.
Landscaping business Australian Native Landscapes' yard in Peisley Street was a hive of activity on Friday morning as Mr Stevens' SES team worked to fill sandbags with the help of the RFS.
"They (ANL) offered their yard to us so we've got a sandbagging machine down there and they're pumping through sandbags something fierce and trucking them out to where we need them.
"We've got deliveries going out of 500 sandbags each that will at least alleviate a bit of the stress on the ground for the guys in those areas."
Mr Stevens said locally, it was pleasing to see many local residents were preparing their properties for the predicted wet summer ahead.
"We're expecting have higher than average rainfall through to about February so a lot of people are taking the initiative and doing the work which is really good."
ORANGE'S WETTEST YEARS
- 1950 - 1666mm
- 2010 - 1580.4mm
- 1956 - 1518mm
- 1973 - 1442mm
- 2021 - 1374.6mm (and counting)
- 1978 - 1314mm
- 1916 - 1303mm
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