Narrabri topped the rainfall to 9am yesterday with 49mm.

It was mainly the plains which fared best, with Mullaley sucking up 42mm, Terry Hie Hie receiving 30mm and Gunnedah 29mm.

Emma Redden, of AAA Angus at Somerton, said the rain was “wonderful”.

Somerton received 18mm by 9am yesterday and a further 4mm to 3pm.

“It is so good because we’ve had a few little showers the last month or so, so mum (Janet) and I got in on the weekend and put three paddocks of oats in, so looking at it now, we know in a few weeks’ time we’ll have oats up,” Ms Redden said.

But Moree, which only received 5.6mm, was one of the areas cited to receive a good drenching by Friday, Bureau of Meteorology acting officer in charge at Moree, Les Lever, said.

Some tablelands towns also did well up to 9am yesterday, with Guyra receiving 36mm.

Inverell received 8mm to 9am yesterday – but was walloped with almost 46mm yesterday between 9am and 3pm.

“It’s thundering down here at the moment,” said Georgia Oakes, Local Land Services senior land services officer in Inverell, yesterday afternoon.

She said a woman at Mount Russell had told her they had none on Sunday but then had almost 25mm in one hour yesterday.

Local Land Services senior land services officer at Gunnedah, Bill Manning, said the rain would “be good for pasture growth on the plains but maybe not up on the tablelands (with its cooler weather)”.

“It’s still a bit early for winter cereal crops (to be planted) but it’s a good time for forage crops for cattle, such as oats and dual-purpose winter wheat,” he said.

Mr Lever said yesterday that the good falls experienced so far were “only really the start” and that, especially by Thursday, “we will actually see an increase in rainfall” forecast.

Today and tomorrow, he said, Inverell, Armidale and Tamworth were expecting 5-10mm each day, while Moree would get 10-15mm each day.

Between 25mm and 50mm would fall in Moree on Thursday and the same amount was expected in Narrabri on Friday.