First, let's have a look at the context of this rainfall and it has been an incredibly dry year to date across much of the country. This map shows the rainfall deciles for January and the red shades show where we have seen below average to very much below average rainfall, all the way from Western Australia through Central Australia and down into the far south-east of the country, but there are a few regions worth pointing out.
First Central Australia, we have seen through southern NT, western parts of New South Wales and inland South Australia less than ten millimeters so far this year and in some cases less than two millimeters.
Further south, though, western Victoria and eastern South Australia have seen no rainfall at all.
And so just how much rainfall are we expecting? Well, this map shows the total forecast rainfall out to Tuesday evening, and for many people, this rain will be very welcome indeed. But there are a few things to note about this map.
First, this is just one forecast scenario and the forecast will be updated and change in the coming days. We are also looking at a number of weather systems, in particular a tropical cyclone which is forecast to develop off the Pilbara coast this weekend and for
