The monsoon is often hailed as the relief from the Top End's stifling build up. But after arriving behind schedule this year, the Territory's first monsoonal burst is almost over and it hasn't brought the torrential rains many thought it would.
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00:00There wasn't a cloud in the sky in Darwin today.
00:05Well, that's not quite true.
00:07But it was hot and sunny, hardly the conditions you'd expect of a monsoon.
00:12Right?
00:13This monsoon was probably down the inactive end of the range of the monsoons, but all
00:18the monsoons are just subtly different.
00:20If you feel like you haven't had much relief from the heat and humidity, you're not alone.
00:25Pretty dry, hasn't turned up, they call it the no-soon.
00:29The non-soon, actually just an inactive monsoon.
00:32You can have either an active monsoon where it's raining the whole time, or an inactive
00:36monsoon where you just get these little squall lines of showers coming through.
00:41And we're about to see the conditions get a whole lot stickier.
00:44We get a monsoon onset, the monsoon trough then retreats back north over the Arafura
00:49Sea and leaves us in build-up-like conditions.
00:53And this is what we're seeing happening at the moment.
00:55It's been very dry.
00:56I haven't looked up the stats.
00:58We did, and while we may not have seen the glorious downpours of wet seasons gone by,
01:03the BOM says rainfall for Darwin is around average.
01:07We just may not have noticed it, because much of the storm activity has occurred while we're
01:11sound asleep.
01:12Further south, Catherine is on track for a wetter-than-usual start to the year.
01:17An intense storm cell triggering flood warnings over the weekend.
01:20The river sitting at around 11 metres at the town's main bridge.
01:25If we don't get any more rain in the catchment area, that will allow the conditions to ease.
01:31Monsoonal bursts tend to occur in 30-60 day intervals, meaning we're unlikely to get another
01:36one until March.
01:38So with these hot and sticky conditions only expected to increase, the advice from some
01:44is to try and make the most of it.
01:46What's it like in Canada at this time of year?
01:49Minus 30.
01:51This is great.
01:52I love it.
01:53Turns out, the grass may just be greener right here at home.