Wagga could be in for a two-day drenching as a massive belt of rain makes its way across the country.
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According to the Bureau of Meteorology, ex-Tropical Cyclone Esther is expected to bring between 20 and 40 millimetres of rain to Wagga on both Wednesday and Thursday.
Depending on just how much rain actually falls, the city could record more in a single day this week that it did for the whole of the summer.
A total of just 38.6mm fell in Wagga during December, January and February, making the summer one of the driest on record. In 1944, just 9.4mm was recorded for the summer, while in 1952, there was 12mm.
Nigel Smedley from the bureau's Wagga office said just how much rain fell was likely to be affected by thunderstorm activity, but the current predictions were for rain all day on Wednesday and Thursday.
It is months since Wagga recorded a significant amount of rain in a single 24-hour period. On November 4, falls of 55.2mm were recorded, but as that day was a Monday, the figure would have also taken into account the previous weekend's rain.
The region's farmers will be closely watching weather predictions, as the latest information from the Department of Primary Industries shows that just 1.5 per cent of NSW is currently considered to be "out of drought".
In the Riverina, just 0.4 per cent - a tiny sliver of the Snowy Valleys region - is classified as recovering.
Most of the region - a little more than 81 per cent - is drought affected, with 9.5 per cent officially considered to be in drought and 8.9 per cent as intense drought.
All of the Wagga local government area is classified as drought-affected.
Daniel Brear, the south west regional manager for NSW Farmers, warned while it was "nice to have calls about upcoming rain rather than ongoing drought", the dry conditions were far from over.
"The rain is very welcome and the more widespread, the better," he said.
Mr Brear said while farmers would welcome the rain, they would still be needing widespread follow-up falls ahead of the traditional autumn sowing period.
"Farmers will be hoping that the predictions will provide some valuable falls," he said.
"I hope there will be rain in the areas where it is predicted to fall."
