Welcome heavy rainfall came to the south-east last week and into the weekend, bringing relief to communities after years of drought.

Key points: The Bureau of Meteorology says more rain may follow a system that drenched SA and Australia's south-east last week

The Bureau of Meteorology says more rain may follow a system that drenched SA and Australia's south-east last week The SA town of Oodnadatta recorded more rain last week than it had for a year

The SA town of Oodnadatta recorded more rain last week than it had for a year But in WA, April records look set to be broken with temperatures far higher than average

Hopefully, it won't just be a one-off — for the first time in years, the outlook heading into winter is looking wet.

Last week's falls came about because of a trough that brought tropical moisture to parts of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

"Hot on its heels we had a pretty strong cold front that followed that trough system," the Bureau of Meteorology's Dean Narramore said.

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NSW rainfall totals Location Rainfall Perisher Valley 102mm Cobar 92mm White Cliffs 92mm Parkes 86mm Coonabarabran 80mm Rainfall totals from Thursday through to 9:00am Monday

"It was a fairly strong system that also interacted with some tropical moisture and brought widespread showers and a much colder air mass to south-eastern parts of Australia, which led to snow falling down to around 1,000 metres in parts of Victoria and Tasmania, but also widespread rainfall."

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Widespread and 'very welcome'

The totals were impressive, especially in inland areas that missed out on the rainfall earlier in the year.

"It's very welcome rainfall," Mr Narramore said.

"Not only for coastal areas, but also inland parts of New South Wales, Victoria, and even into northern parts of South Australia as well as much of Tasmania."

Oodnadatta, in South Australia, received more rain in just a few hours on Thursday than it did in the whole of last year.

Mr Narramore said many locations would have received more rain in the past few weeks than the whole of 2019.

SA rainfall totals Location Rainfall Kalamurina 90mm Ashton 65mm Oodnadatta 54mm Rainfall totals from Thursday through to 9:00am Monday

"In the area from around Birdsville [in Queensland] all the way through Oodnadatta, through to Burra [South Australia], and then into western New South Wales," he said.

This year has been shaping up as especially wet in areas such as Melbourne, where the year-to-date rainfall is well above average.

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This week's forecast

The rain has cleared out from the south for now with cool, sunny weather on the forecast for the next few days.

Victoria rainfall totals Location Rainfall Mount Buller 150mm Donna Buang 134mm Ferny Creek 128mm Rainfall totals from Thursday through to 9:00am Monday

But there is a chance of another rain-bearing system coming through towards the end of this week, although, according to Mr Narramore, it is currently looking like it will bring less widespread rainfall than the weekend just gone.

Sadly, though, it looks like Western Australia's south-west will miss out again.

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"They're actually looking at almost record heat," Mr Narramore said.

"Temperatures anywhere from 8 to 14 degrees above average.

"The mid-30s [are forecast] for the south-west, so we could see some April records fall there later this week.

"Unfortunately there is no rain really in sight for the south-west in the coming weeks."

Tasmania rainfall totals Location Rainfall Killymoon 157mm Fingal 137mm Rainfall totals from Thursday through to 9:00am Monday

The rain a sign of things to come

Mr Narramore said the latest outlook was showing pretty good odds for most of the country to receive above-average rainfall in the coming months.

This outlook doesn't guarantee rain but it is good to see the odds tipping towards wetter conditions. ( Supplied: BOM )

It's a welcome outlook for those who have rainfall deficiencies despite the recent rain.

"There's a lot of warm water around the northern and western parts of the country, ocean-wise. And that's allowing for a little bit more moisture in the atmosphere," Mr Narramore said.

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"So as any weather system moves through, it's interacting and pulling down some of that moisture, contributing to this widespread rainfall."

Of course, a good outlook doesn't guarantee rain … but fingers crossed everyone.

"So hopefully we're going to see at least an average or even above-average rainfall in the autumn and early winter period for hopefully many parts of the country," Mr Narramore said.