After a run of four months with well below-average rainfall, Adelaide has had its sixth significant day of rain since the beginning of the last week of November, with 20 mm in the gauge to 9 am Tuesday, December 12.

The image below is from 1:30 pm Monday local time, and it shows what meteorologists sometimes call a "thunderstorm train".

This particular train delivered over half a million lightning strikes (523,824 to be precise) as well as widespread rain totals of 10 mm or more, with a reading of more than 50 mm in at least one location.

Here's a list of the recent rain days in the SA capital, and how much rain fell on each of those days.

• Nov 24: 22.8 mm
• Nov 28: 33.6 mm
• Nov 28 3.8 mm
• Dec 9: 8.2 mm
• Dec 10: 30.6
• Dec 11: 11.8
• Dec 12: 20.0 mm

That's a total of 130.8 mm in Adelaide over 19 days. To put that in perspective, just 12 mm of rain was recorded in the period from October 1 to November 23.

While we've been focusing on Adelaide thus far this story, the figures in the city tell a wider story of substantial rainfall that has occurred in nearby areas.

Image: 7-day Adelaide rain to December 11, 2023. Source: BoM. 

Indeed the map above shows the 7-day rainfall totals up to 9 am Monday, so while the overnight falls are not included, you can still see the December wet spell reflected, with most of SA getting a piece of the action.

Not every corner of the state has seen rain in recent weeks. Large parts of the North East Pastoral and North West Pastoral forecast districts have missed out.

Renmark, in the Riverland district near the Victorian border, is just over 250 km from Adelaide, yet it has also missed most of the soaking rain, as the graph below shows – and that graph includes the 2.8 mm that fell overnight to 9 am Tuesday.

But overall, the recent South Australian rainfall has been good news for farmers and urban gardeners across much of the state.

Significant rainfall exceeding a few millimetres is not expected anywhere in SA for at least the next week or so after this Tuesday.