There were only two days where the airport recorded more than an inch of rain in 24 hours and both of those were back in February.

There was 25.4mm in the gauge on February 6 and another 25.6mm on February 9.

The rainfall figures put 2019 on par with 1982, only 1944 (222.6mm) and 2006 (158.8mm) have been drier according to Bureau of Meteorology records from Camp Street and Forbes airport which date back to 1873.

December wrapped up with some extreme temperatures: the mercury soared to 43.9 degrees on Friday December 20 and a blistering 46.3 on Saturday, December 21.

That appears to be a December record for Forbes as far as your Advocate reporter can ascertain, with Forbes Airport's hottest temperature of 46.7 recorded in February 2017 and Camp Street's hottest temperature of 47.8 recorded in January 1882.

2019 ended with the sort of gusty, dusty day you'd expect such a year to blow out on, with raised dust for much of the district.

The new year saw Forbes wake to a thick blanket of smoke from devastating fires in other regions.

Looking to our water supply, Wyangala Dam was at 11.3 per cent after another hot weekend.

The temperature in Forbes peaked at 45.7 degrees on Saturday.

Forbes remains on Level 1 water restrictions, with the ability to draw on groundwater supplies if needed.

Eugowra, Gooloogong and other communities supplied by Central Tablelands Water have been upgraded to Level 4 water restrictions.

Details of what that means for residents there were in Friday's edition or are on our website forbesadvocate.com.au

Looking ahead, Don White from Weatherwatch reports in The Land that this year commences with a little more optimism.

The Indian Ocean Dipole continues to drift back to neutral and the Southern Annular Mode is back to near normal levels for this time of year.

In the tropical Pacific, the El Nio-Southern Oscillation remains neutral.