Sydney has officially received more than a full year’s worth of rain – and it’s only April

In news that will be a surprise to absolutely no one currently enduring the relentless downpours in NSW, the Bureau of Meteorology has revealed statistics showing that the Greater Sydney region has already received more rain than the estimated yearly average, just three months and seven days into 2022. BOM’s yearly projection was for 1,213mm of rainfall over 12 months, but by April 7, Sydney had received 1,223.8mm.

These worrying stats come hot on the heels of BOM forecasts predicting that the unprecedented rains that have inundated the East Coast of the country for months are likely to continue until at least the end of autumn. Flood warnings and evacuation orders have been issued to parts of Sydney’s south in recent days, and extraordinary scenes have been captured on camera of waterfalls flowing from some of Sydney’s coastal suburbs, including in the affluent neighbourhood of Vaucluse where high winds were blowing these newly formed waterfalls backwards.

However, BOM’s forecasts for winter 2022 offer some faint silver linings to some very dark clouds. The powerful La Niña that has driven the incessant Big Wet is waning, albeit more slowly than is typical. This means more recognisable conditions should return to the Harbour City by June or July, but any hope of salvaging some semblance of summer seems to have gone down the drain.

 Confused about why Sydney has had such a soggy summer? We take a deep dive into the La Niña weather event.