Today
Has it rained enough in Sydney?
Rain soaked in today, and the ground has taken it.
Sydney has had 95.1mm of rain in the last 30 days. That is well above the 57.8mm a normal October brings here, and closer to the wettest on record (172.4mm).
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
18 OctToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
4 days of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Sydney through a normal year
Across a normal year Sydney gets about 757.9mm of rain, most of it in March (90.7mm) and least in July (42.5mm).
A normal October in Sydney has rain on 12 days. Only 7 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Sydney one of the drier places this site covers in Australia in October — 9th 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.