Don’t let Monday’s drier weather fool you, Illawarra, there’s more rain on the way.
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After a week of persistent wet weather, the start of the working week should be one of the driest of the next seven days – but it won’t stay that way for long.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast just a 40 per cent chance of showers in Wollongong on Monday, with the city on thunderstorm watch during the afternoon.
Despite the absence of last week’s torrential downpours, the region has been left with a sticky reminder of the lingering wet weather.
Relative humidity hovered around 100 per cent for most of Monday morning at Albion Park, while on the coast that figure was a sweaty 95 per cent
On the rainfall front, totals in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday were the lightest they’ve been since last Tuesday at Albion Park and Bellambi.
Five millimetres was recorded at Albion Park, while just 1.6mm fell over Bellambi.
The lighter falls come as pockets of sunshine at the weekend did little to help dry out areas left saturated by last week’s wet weather.
Rainfall has been recorded on 19 of the past 23 days at Albion Park, with the suburb’s rain gauge inundated by 395mm during that period.
The heaviest daily fall, of 151mm, was in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday as torrential rain lashed the region.
Flash flooding caused by the intense rainfall has left many, including Marshall Mount landholder Josh East, picking up the pieces.
“It was actually a really dirty flood this one,” Mr East said, speaking of the amount of debris picked up, and then dumped, by the raging water.
The landholder, who runs cattle and grows a variety of berries, spent the weekend cleaning up what he could.
Other damage, including to fencing in low-lying areas around Marshall Mount Creek, will have to wait until conditions underfoot dry out.
“I’m trying to find decent ground for livestock so they’re not in the mud … but we keep getting progressive showers,” he said.
“Everything's full so the water’s go nowhere to go in the ground any more.”
Mr East, a rural fencing contractor, only recently finished repairing a section of fence, on North Macquarie Road, damaged by the floods in June.
“It’s all gone again; it’s that continual battle we fight with Mother Nature at the moment,” he said.
More wet weather is on the cards for Wollongong this week, with showers possible every day until Sunday.
At this stage, the bureau suggests showers will increase on Tuesday, when two to five millimetres could fall in Wollongong.
Wednesday will a warm day (27 degrees in the city and 28 at Albion Park), but also wet with the chance of a storm.
A “shower or two” is forecast on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, while a “possible shower” is on the cards for Sunday.