The air is muggy and warm and it’s to blame for the recent burst of thunderstorms wreaking havoc in the Riverina, according to the Wagga weather office.
Thunder and lightning struck about 8.30pm and brought with it strong wind gusts of 38 knots.
The lightning show played out for about 30 minutes. It was backed up by a separate storm that hit the city in the early hours of the morning.
The State Emergency Service (SES) was “very lucky” to get away with only two calls for help in Wagga, deputy region controller John Gregory said.
Wind gusts brought down two trees – one in Central and another at Springvale.
"I think we got off quite lightly," Mr Gregory said.
The weather office said thunderstorms were "likely" to persist because of a trough lingering over southern NSW.
That fact tied with humid air blowing in from the Tasman Sea is causing clouds to swell up over the Riverina, according Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) technical officer Robbie Lennard.
“That’s the nature of the beast. If it gets quite warm, the cumulous clouds will start to grow in that environment and grow and grow and grow until they develop into thunderstorms,” he said.
"That's why it feels a little muggy and warm.”
The storm cells will fill the void on what has been a month of below-average rainfall.
Mr Lennard said Wagga is “unlikely” to hit its mean rainfall for the month, recording just 13.6 millimetres so far - 22 millimetres below-average.
For farmers, that is not good news - they are praying Mother Nature delivers rain soon.
Upper Murray Seeds senior agronomist Don Kirkpatrick said dams and groundwater are drying up at a “rapid rate”.
“Dam water is a really big issue,” he said. "In general terms, there has been no run-off anywhere and it’s starting to show. If it starts to rain anytime from March onwards it will be happy days.”
BOM forecast a “medium chance” of showers Wednesday morning and afternoon, with a maximum of 30 degrees.
