Rain, glorious rain, and plenty of it, has fallen overnight and yesterday in several NSW districts – including the Upper Western, Northwest Slopes & Plains, Central West Slopes & Plains and the Southern Tablelands.

• Walgett Airport led the way with 60 mm to 9 am Thursday morning, followed by Moree with 58.8 mm.
• Moree's reading was the highest on record for any day in September.
• The iconic outback NSW town of Bourke also copped a solid drenching, with 43.8 mm in the gauge at the airport. That's almost exactly the same in a day as the town received in the five-month stretch from April to August this year.
• Canberra had its second-wettest day of September (and indeed its second-wettest day of the entire year) with 37.8 mm.

And aren't the farmers loving it!

"We've got a wall of feed and crops are looking good, Coonamble farmer Anne Kennedy told Weatherzone.

Image: This isn't Anne Kennedy's field, but we're led to believe hers looks just as healthy. Source: minka2507 via Pixabay.

Coonamble (which is about 160 km north of Dubbo) officially recorded 41 mm at the airport, and Kennedy told us she received pretty much exactly that on her property.

She said her wheat crop is "on a bit of an angle" this morning due to heavy rain and wind, but reckoned "it should right itself" in time for the November harvest, and was grateful that her place had received none of the hail reported elsewhere.

She's also grateful that the mice which were in plague proportions earlier this year haven't shown their little faces again (after being largely drowned out during another heavy rain event earlier this year).

That said, all farmers are wary that good spring rains like this have the potential to create the conditions for a new plague down the track.

But for now, the news is good. There's feed for the cattle and the wheat crop is looking good, even if it's a little bent over.

Image: The red pin shows the location of Coonamble in the NSW Central West Sloppes and Plains district. Source: Google Maps

So what caused this widespread spring rain?

The wide-ranging heavy falls across a large area of NSW (and the ACT) reflect the abundance of moisture in the atmosphere this week as a broad low pressure trough sitting over eastern and southeastern Australia interacts with an upper level low pressure system.

Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino explained how this system was building up a little earlier this week, and the video in this story is worth watching again.

Most of the wet weather in this large weather system has now made its way to southern NSW and Victoria, and we'll keep you updated as rain and storms unfold throughout the day.