Over 100 mm of much-needed rainfall soaked the parched countryside around Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid North Coast to 9 am Friday, and rain is still falling as lunchtime approaches.

Coffs Harbour is usually a pretty wet place. Located roughly halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, it sees 1647 mm annually – compared to Brisbane's 1021 mm and Sydney's 1211 mm.

But this year's rainfall has been tracking well below average, with a running deficit of more than 500 mm on average totals for this time of year before the overnight deluge.

This rain was caused by a cool, unstable southeasterly stream whipping around a low-pressure system located just offshore of the NSW/Qld border.

Parts of southeast Queensland and most of the NSW coast also saw significant falls, although the northern half of the NSW coast saw the most action, with only a few falls exceeding 10 mm from about Sydney southwards.

The two heaviest readings in the state were both in the Mid North Coast forecast district:

• 136 mm at Mooral Creek, in the hills inland from Port Macquarie
• 127 mm at Sawtell, just south of Coffs Harbour

For an understanding of how much this rain was needed, take a look at the graph below showing the last 12 months of rainfall at Kempsey on the NSW Mid North Coast, just north of Port Macquarie.

Typical of most areas on or near the NSW coast, Kempsey rainfall has been well below average in most months of 2023 since early in the year.

Rain should ease off a little later today in northern NSW with showers sticking around on Saturday and a drying trend setting on from Sunday.