When storms set in late on Wednesday night and continued into this Thursday morning in Alice Springs, it made it eight days straight that the iconic Northern Territory outback city had seen rain.

The total rainfall over the eight-day streak was 125.2mm, with the 43.4mm recorded in the 24 hours to 9am Thursday being the heaviest single day of rain. There were reports of multiple rescues as flash flooding occurred in and around the normally dry Todd River.

No additional rain was recorded on Thursday between 9am and 3pm, although some showers were still in the area, meaning the streak may extend to nine days. 

How unusual are Alice Springs rainfall events lasting over a week?

Alice Springs receives a relatively meagre 283.7mm of rainfall on average each year, spread out over an average of 42.9 rain days.

That means the city can expect less than one rain day per week across the year, which makes eight-day wet spells (or longer) very much a rarity. But they are not unprecedented:

• The last time it rained on eight consecutive days in Alice Springs was in June/July 2023, when the streak actually lasted nine days, delivering 31mm in total.
• You have to go back 44 years to find an eight-day streak of wet days in February.

What caused the last eight days of rainfall?

The loop below shows the storms lashing the Alice Springs area overnight.

Image: Six-hour combined satellite and radar loop to 3:30am ACST, showing storms over Central Australia and the Alice Springs area.

"Slow-moving storms coalesced from the south along a trough line, harnessing intense tropical moisture brewed by weeks of tropical cyclone and monsoon activity,” Weatherzone meteorologist Jess Miskelly explains.

The occasional influxes of tropical moisture like we’ve seen this week are why Alice Springs is more likely to see significant rainfall totals in summer than winter.

Indeed, January and February are The Alice's wettest two months on average (42.4mm and 40.7mm respectively) while August is the driest month with an average of just 8mm.

February’s running total of 125.2mm means that Alice Springs has already received three times its average monthly rainfall. But it’s worth noting that just 0.4mm fell in January (on the first day of the year).

READ MORE: Queensland flood threat with heavy rain and severe thunderstorms later this week

Meanwhile, several weather stations near Alice Springs recorded even heavier falls overnight, including Mt Lloyd with 121mm, 76mm of which fell in an intense downpour between 1am and 2am.

Alice Springs and southern parts of the NT should see a return to relatively dry conditions from Friday through to the early part of next week.