WAGGA has recorded one of its wettest summers on record, but has been spared the flooding rains that have devastated parts of the country in recent weeks.
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Rainfall across Australia was 9 per cent above the 1961 to 1990 average, making 2021 the wettest year since 2016 and November the wettest on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Wagga recorded a staggering 215.6mm of rain in November 2021, while January 2022 hit 169.8mm, the most January rain since 2015.
Weatherzone Director of Meteorology Duncan Tippins said this last summer was Wagga's 4th wettest, with 233.8mm recorded at the Gurwood street rain gauge station.
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The wettest summer on record was the summer of 2010-11 with 366.6mm at Wagga airport gauge.
Wagga grain farmer Simon Moloney has loved the cool, wet year.
"It's good for us, the rain has been unreal," he said. "The last 12 months has certainly been wet, which has been great because our income is basically straight line related to how much rain we get.
"We'll have plenty of moisture to get our next crop in in April."
Brad Burt, an estimator and coordinator for a building company that does insurance repairs, has seen a big increase in his line of work due to the inclement weather.
"We do insurance repairs to your storm-damaged homes," he said. "It's just been a wetter year, we've got heaps [of work], especially with the floods up north, things have gone crazy. We're flat out."
Mr Burt covers the Riverina area for his company, which does repairs across the eastern seaboard, and said he has been particularly busy since the storms in Wagga this January.
"The more it rains, the more work we get," he said.
The wet weather also makes life busier for the gardening trades, and Fox Mowing & Gardening NSW state manager Leo Lazich said mowing has gone up 30 per cent over the last year in Wagga.
"In Wagga, we've got three foxes, we could do with five or six at the moment," he said.
In normal years Fox customers would get their lawn mowed 21 times a year, Mr Lazich said, but if you like a tightly trimmed lawn these days, that will have to change.
"A regular client is fortnightly in season, but the big thing now is every forthright it's like its been a month with the amount of growth we've had," he said. "Someone that wants their lawn kept well, well all of a sudden it's a weekly task."
Last year was Australia's coolest year in nearly a decade and for the first time in five years, no large parts of the country were experiencing rainfall deficits or drought conditions in 2021.
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