Riverina Local Land Services

Rainfall across parts of the region aids slight improvement in conditions.

• February rainfall has been average to above average across most of the region. It has resulted in a slight improvement in conditions.
• There has been a reduction in the area in the CDI Drought category (including the Gundagai region) during February. This is being driven by improvements in the underlying indicators.
• Conditions remain challenging across many parts of the region. Management of soil moisture and farm water supply remain a consideration for producers entering autumn.
• Producers continue to monitor forecasts closely and are implementing farm management strategies in line with conditions.
• The drought forecast suggests that further regions will likely transition into the Drought Affected CDI category by the end of May (with moderate model agreement and moderate to high past accuracy).
• The DPIRD continues to closely monitor conditions in this region.

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Normalised Difference Vegetation Index

Plant greenness levels remain variable across the region for the December to February period

Anomalies remain below average for parts of the region.

Note that some of the extremely negative NDVI areas (brown patches) are water bodies.

The NDVI anomaly is a useful measure of vegetation density and plant health. It estimates the amount of green vegetation there is in the landscape compared to what is expected at the given time of year, against the baseline period 1987 - 2020.

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Individual Drought Indicators

Drought indicators continue to remain low in the east, further decline in the west.

• The underlying drought indicators are very low at Gundagai.
• The drought indicator values remain steady at Hay.
• Substantial rainfall is needed to trigger an improvement in conditions across many regions.

To access a Drought History chart for your Parish, visit the Seasonal Conditions Information Portal.