Today
Has it rained enough in Adelaide?
Rain soaked in today, and the ground has taken it.
Adelaide has had 42.6mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 37.8mm, so the ground is roughly where it should be for the time of year.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
18 OctToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
3 days of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Adelaide through a normal year
Across a normal year Adelaide gets about 499.8mm of rain, most of it in July (68.9mm) and least in March (19.7mm).
A normal October in Adelaide has rain on 10 days. Only 5 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Adelaide one of the drier places this site covers in Australia in October — 11th of 12, against Brisbane at the wet end (81.3mm) and Perth at the dry end (32.4mm).
JFMarAMJJulASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.