MORE rain will spread over western NSW this weekend as a north-west cloud band passes over the state.
Earlier this week, a mass of tropical moisture caused heavy rain over a broad area of western NSW on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Some places picked up their best rain in several years as this wave of tropical moisture swept over the state.
Wilcannia's 51 millimetres during the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday was its heaviest daily rain in three years.
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Further south, Menindee collected 42 mm in the same period, which was its best rain since 2018.
While the rain from this system will ease over most of NSW today, another round of wet weather is already coming in from the west.
Tropical moisture interacting with a fast-moving cold front and low pressure trough will cause a band of rain to spread over NSW from west to east between this Friday night and Sunday morning.
This next rain-bearing cloud band could bring another five to 20mm to most inland districts of NSW by Sunday morning.
Some areas could even see more than 50mm of rain falling within 24 hours, particularly with thunderstorms.
Drier weather should return to most inland areas of the state from Sunday into the start of next week as a high pressure ridge moves in behind the front.
However, there could be more rain on the way in the next few weeks and months.
Several long-range forecast models suggest that a negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) could develop in May or June and persist through winter into spring.
A negative IOD is the Indian Ocean's version of La Nina.
It is simply a pattern of sea surface temperatures that causes more moisture to flow towards Australia from the west.
Negative IOD episodes usually cause north-west cloud bands to become more prominent over Australia and deliver above-average rain to western NSW.
So, the rain we have seen this week may be a taste of what's to come in winter and spring.
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