The major flooding situation continues in the NSW Central West town of Forbes (population 8400), after the Lachlan River peaked at 10.67 metres on Saturday, which was just below the 1952 flood level.

Waters are only slowly subsiding, and the CBD and many businesses are still inundated in a lengthy flood event that is now into its fifth day.

Dawn over Forbes CBD flooding pic.twitter.com/503tRMx7G3

— Nick Moir (@nampix) November 4, 2022

Ironically, Forbes hasn't seen rain since last Wednesday and skies have been mostly clear since then. In terms of the most recent rainfall in town:

• Forbes received 35.4 mm on the first two days of November.
• It also received 143.4 mm in October, which was more than triple the monthly average of 46 mm.

So the town definitely didn't miss out on heavy rain, but the main cause of these floods was the exceptionally heavy rain in the Lachlan River catchment upstream in the northernmost parts of the NSW Southern Tablelands.

That rain has filled the Lachlan's largest reservoir Wyangala Dam (about 150 km upstream of Forbes with a volume twice that of Sydney Harbour) to more than 100% capacity, with a latest reading of 100.7% on Sunday.

This dramatic footage from Sydney Morning Herald chief photographer Nick Moir from November 1 illustrates the amount of water in the Wyangala outflow, and unfortunately, this is the water that has inundated Forbes.

100,000 meg release from Wyangala Dam. Evacuation warnings downstream at Cowra. @nampix for @smh pic.twitter.com/AdbH9mrDD6

— Nick Moir (@nampix) November 1, 2022

Meanwhile, residents have more than just floodwaters to contend with. All sorts of wildlife has been made homeless by these floods, including snakes, who are trying to swim their way to high ground.

This picture, captured by a Forbes local who calls herself @auntiemshandmade on Instagram, reminds us of the old grainy image of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.

Perhaps we'll have to call this creature the "Lachlan Ness Monster".

Forbes snake catcher Paul Newcombe told The Australian newspaper that he had received about a dozen calls on Sunday alone. He described the eastern brown snakes trying to escape the floodwaters as "exhausted, cold and cranky".

Meanwhile a mostly fine working week can be expected in the Central West Slopes and Plains region where Forbes is located, so here's hoping those floodwaters subside quickly.

For the time being, the local council is urging residents to boil all water used for drinking water – and that includes water used for cooking and for pets' drinking water.