Patchy weather across the Easter long weekend dumped rain tallies of more than 50 millimetres in isolated pockets across SA, while much of the state's rain gauges collect dust.
While rainfall early in summer looked promising, the weather dried off by the end of January, with most regions not recording a single millimetre of rain in February and less than 10mm in March.
Although the majority of the state is still dry, wet weather events tore through parts of the Mid North and the Riverland.
Elders Jamestown agronomist Darren Pech said the weekend's rainfall was patchy, with tallies varying fourfold across only a couple of kilometres.
"We had some freaky thunderstorms on the weekend where some had close to 40mm," Mr Pech said.
"Probably the first farm south of Jamestown got that 40mm, but only 5km north, we had about 7mm.
"That'll prompt the guys who got some rain to get some feed in and germinated, and then if we get some rain in the next 10 to 14 days, that'll give them a very good start."
In the Riverland, similar tallies were recorded according to Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Simon Timcke, who said the weather event was linked to ex-tropical cyclone Megan.
"At Loxton, we recorded 12mm and 4mm at Renmark, but there was almost 27mm at Monash and some reports suggest people had 50mm," he said.
"It was quite a moist atmosphere producing isolated showers and thunderstorms, rather than a wide rain band.
"Earlier in the weekend, in the North East pastoral area, Moomba recorded 55mm to 9am Sunday, while Maree had about 39mm."
While rain tallies have been below-average for February and March across the agricultural areas, Mr Timcke said high rainfall tallies were not expected.
"It's a dry time of year for SA through late summer and early autumn," he said.
"We had a hot, dry spell in late-March, but since then we've had a cold front move in over the weekend.
"Early next week, another front will push across and bring some colder air and some shower activity as well to the West Coast and the southern agricultural area."
Katie Jackson
Journalist at Stock Journal. Born into a journo family in the state's South East, Katie made the move to the big smoke to join the team in early 2022 after seven years spent at various mastheads in the regions.
Journalist at Stock Journal. Born into a journo family in the state's South East, Katie made the move to the big smoke to join the team in early 2022 after seven years spent at various mastheads in the regions.
