July rainfall in Orange: First seven days of month one of our wettest stretches this century

Orange has endured one of its wettest starts to July this century.

Over the first seven days of the month, Orange has recorded almost 40 millimetres of rain. The official weather station for Orange at the airport says 38.2mm has fallen to 9am on July 7.

That makes the first seven days of July, 2023 one of Orange's wettest starts to the seventh month of the year since 2000.

Last year was incredibly wet, with 47.2mm falling over the opening week of July. Then, July 2007 was also very wet, with 42mm falling over the opening week.

Keen weather watchers will remember 2016 being an extremely wet year as well, and 38.4mm was recorded in the first seven days of July seven years ago.

That makes this year's rainfall total of 38.2mm the city's fourth wettest start to July since 2000.

That wet run has been coupled with a string of really cold days for the region too, with single digit maximums dominating the start of the month.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Orange recorded a maximum of 11.3 degrees last Wednesday and then hasn't cracked double digits again since.

A run of low top temperatures - 7.8 degrees (Thursday, July 6), 7.6 degrees (Friday, July 7), 9.9 degrees (Saturday, July 8), 8.3 degrees (Sunday, July 9) and then 7.5 degrees (Monday, July 10) - has made the wet days all the more intolerable.

Looking ahead, there may be some respite on the radar.

A top of 13 degrees is predicted for Wednesday, and then again on Saturday as we look ahead to a drier run of weather over the back-half of July.

There's some chance of rain on Sunday - a 60 per cent shot - but falls look to be at a minimum.

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