South Australia weather: Rain falls in Adelaide for first time in a month

It’s finally rained, breaking a month-long dry spell for much of South Australia. With light showers overnight, what is in store for the state this week?

Crop farmer Daniel Marrett on his property at Peake. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Adelaide finally recorded its first rain in 29 days on Sunday as the showers continued on Monday morning around the state.

However, with less than half a millimetre recorded in the city overnight and not much more expected today around the state, there won’t be much joy for farmers.

By 6am, 0.4mm had fallen in Adelaide since 9am Sunday.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Chris Kent told ABC Radio Adelaide that while the drizzle might continue, it would clear up by this evening and only deliver “a couple millimetres”.

“We’ve finally seen some precipitation across South Australia, it’s been a long time coming but unfortunately you haven’t see a great deal,” he said.

“We’ve really only had two-to-three millimetres across the southern agriculture area which is only really enough to wet that top layer of soil.

“We’ve gone along time without getting too much, so we’ll take what we can get at the moment.

He said showers would continue today, mainly in the southern areas.

“Again, there’s not really a lot in them … we’ve got a couple of millimetres at best, light drizzly stuff that we should see starting to clear by this evening,” he said.

Sadly, the seven-day forecast does not predict any rain in the coming days into the start of next week.

It was a blast of wintry weather on Sunday after the state has recorded its coldest morning since September last year, with Adelaide dropping to 4.3 degrees just before 3am, while further afield it was even chillier.

Snowtown, in the state’s north, reached a low of -2.1 degrees, with Renmark, in the state’s Riverland, recording -1.1 degrees.

By 5.30pm, the Bureau of Meteorology said 0.2mm had fallen since 9am.

It said the wettest place in SA was Mt Gambier which recorded 1.8mm. However, the west and north of the state missed out on much-needed rain. The Bureau is forecasting Adelaide could receive another 1mm Monday.

Senior meteorologist Mark Anolak said Adelaide experienced its coldest morning in eight months.

“It’s the coldest morning since September 9 last year,” he said.

Jurgen Boahen-Oteng with his daughter Eris, 2, at Port Noarlunga Beach. Picture: Keryn Stevens

 

The dry weather is causing issues for supplies of feed and crops. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Port Pirie is also expected to record up to 1mm of rain on Monday, with a maximum temperature of 19 degrees.

And Robe, in the state’s South East, is destined for some wet weather with a 60 per cent of showers in the early hours of Monday morning.

St Agnes resident Jurgen Boahen-Oteng was taking his daughter for a walk along Port Noarlunga Beach on Sunday afternoon when the rain set in.

“It was only drizzling, but it was very refreshing,” he said.

The state is fresh off its driest run of February-April weather in 100 years.

Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson climatologist Dr Simon Grainger said the official Adelaide rain gauge on West Tce recorded 15.0mm in the February-April 2024 period – the lowest total since 1923, and the fourth lowest in the combined Adelaide record.

The current dry spell has brought immense concern to farmers who have experienced their driest run of February to April weather in 100 years.

Daniel Marrett, who crops about 2400ha and runs 500 sheep in the state’s Mallee Region, described the situation as “dire”.

“Farmers have exhausted feed options in their paddocks very quickly,” he said.

“If we don’t get rain soon, we are screwed.”

However, the Bureau of Meteorology’s long term forecasting is predicting “unusually high rainfall during June to August”.