While most of NSW has received a healthy drenching this April the southwest of the state has missed out completely and is struggling through one of it's driest starts to a year on record. The region has received only around 10mm of rain so far in 2009, well short of the January to April average of around 100mm. If Deniliquin does not receive a further 5mm of rain before the end of April, 2009 will become their driest start to a year since 1923. The situation is even worse across the border with Renmark only up to 2mm since January 1st while in northern Victoria Swan Hill is sitting on just 15mm. The extremely dry start to the year follows consistently below average rainfall in the region since 2001. There is some good news in the short term with rain likely towards the end of next week.