Thunderstorms bring welcome rain to Darwin after record temperatures

DARWIN has copped a welcome drenching with a line of thunderstorms dropping up to 63mm of rain in some areas

Magpie geese take flight as storms move across Darwin Harbour on Monday morning. Picture: Glenn Campbell

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DARWIN copped a drenching on Monday morning with a line of thunderstorms dropping up to 63mm of welcome rain in some areas.

Storms moving down from the north brought rain to most parts of Darwin early in the morning, with the northern suburbs receiving the highest falls.

As of 9am, 63mm had been recorded at Royal Darwin Hospital in Tiwi, 56mm had fallen at Nightcliff Pool and Shoal Bay had received 28mm..

Rainfall varied across the region though, with Noonamah only receiving 3.8mm and Darwin Airport recording 4mm.

BoM NT senior meteorologist Rebecca Patrick said the storms had developed in a line from Gunn Point to Darwin’s rural areas, before moving south-west across the northern suburbs and into the city and Palmerston

“Normally by this time we’d be expecting storms but with the delay to the wet season it’s always welcome relief to see the start of the good rain,” she said.

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She also said Darwin residents could be seeing more rain in coming days.

“We’re certainly seeing a lot more humidity around which is charging the atmosphere a lot more than we had earlier in the month, so there’s a reasonable chance in the next few days we might see some more storms in the Darwin area.”