HEAVY rainfall has largely avoided the catchment of a key dam over the weekend as temperatures begin to heat up once again.
Inflows recorded by Water NSW paint a dismal picture for Chaffey Dam, the main supply for the region's largest city.
However, there was more to cheer about further afield in the region.
Water NSW data reveals just four megalitres flowed into Chaffey Dam at the end of the weekend.
The dam is still releasing about 30 megalitres a day to cater for demand in Tamworth.
Its capacity has fallen to 13 per cent.
Tamworth recorded some of the most miserly rainfall on this wet weekend, with only 17.2mm.
It was a better weekend for dams on the Namoi River with greater inflows recorded in the bigger catchments.
Keepit received about 15 megalitres on Sunday taking it capacity to 0.6 per cent.
While heavy rainfall in the Barraba region - with reports of up to 80mm over the weekend - helped push some much bigger volumes of water into Split Rock Dam.
Water NSW recorded a 351 megalitre inflow at Split Rock taking its capacity to 0.9 per cent.
The dam is currently the main water supply for Barraba and Manilla.
The region's biggest inflow belonged to Copeton Dam.
Heavier falls on the Northern Tablelands saw 1850 megalitres flow into Copeton increasing its current capacity to 6.2 per cent.
Copeton has an overall capacity of 1,364 gigalitres and it is only releasing 31 megalitres per day.
This article first appeared in the Northern Daily Leader