It was a sweltering year for the state, which endured its hottest and driest year on record in 2019.
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Outlined in the Bureau of Meteorology's annual climate statement, the year of 2019 came with heatwaves in January that brought very high temperatures and large fires from September onward, causing extensive damage and persistent smoke for much of NSW.
Despite the generally warm days, there was a marked cold outbreak in August that saw snow fall to low levels.
While it was not quite the warmest and driest year on record for the Riverina, it was the year the drought hit the region after being immune to it for about a year-and-a-half unlike the northern parts of the state.
November was the only month with above-average rainfall of 63 millimetres, much of which fell over just a few days at the start of the month.
NSW Farmers Wagga district branch chairman Alan Brown said last year's weather patterns took a toll on farmers across the region, who suffered back-to-back years of the same hot, dry conditions.
Mr Brown said farmers' yields had plummeted in 2019, with parts of the Riverina seeing little to no return at all.
"Everyone is hoping for a break from this dry pattern," he said.
"There is an old wives tale that if you do not get rain in the summer time, then it will come in the autumn when it is beneficial and thus far we have not had much rain in summer at all," he said.
In other news:
Associate Professor Andrew hall, who is an earth system scientist at Charles Sturt University, said the impact of global heating is becoming a frequent pattern affecting not only communities in the region, but throughout the country as well.
Despite this, he said there is not enough data to confirm whether the change was due to climate change or just temperatures increasing over a period of time.
"We had an increase of one degree in temperature since 1960, so that has an affect overall," he said.
Associate Professor Hall said there were two weather events of significance for the Riverina during 2019, which includes the positive Indian dipole, which explained the lower levels of rainfall, as well as less moisture in the air.
The other major event was the negative southern annular mode, which he said pushed the high pressure systems further north, causing conditions to become drier than normal for the region.