Sydney is having its driest start to May since the 1880s, with not a single drop recorded this month. Sydney today exceeded the 2008 dry spell, which saw no rain during the first 14 days of May. By making it to 9am this morning without any rain, Sydney achieved its driest start to May since 1882. In that year, the first 19 days of the month passed without any recorded precipitation. It has been a nail-biting month for weather statisticians, with a few near misses. Cold fronts that brought rain to eastern NSW skirted around Sydney on the 2nd, 11th and 13th of May. The closest call was on Wednesday 2nd, when western suburbs were showered with a few millimetres, but Observatory Hill in the city remained dry. As Sydney moves further into May, the countdown is on for the driest start to May on record. If Sydney makes it to 9am on Sunday 20th without any rain, it will go down as the driest start to May since 1859. It will be touch and go though, with moist southeasterly winds bringing the risk of light showers on both Wednesday and Thursday of this week.