The next couple of weeks are going to feature a lot of dry weather for inland districts of NSW.
Over the past week, showers and thunderstorms have delivered some useful rain to parts of NSW. This included over 140mm along the far south coast and more than 50mm over the southern ranges.
However, the coming week will see a firm high pressure ridge deflecting cold fronts to the south of NSW. This should result in a lengthy spell of westerly component winds.
Part of the reason NSW is going to be stuck in this dry weather pattern through the middle of May is because of a positive Southern Annular Mode (SAM).
The SAM is an index that measures the north-south displacement of a belt of westerly winds that flow between Australia and Antarctica.
During a positive phase of the SAM, the westerly winds shift towards the south causing drier weather in the nation's southeast. The opposite occurs in a negative phase.
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