Late yesterday afternoon, Essential Energy was working to restore power to more than 10,000 customers in the Inverell, Bingara, Graman, Warialda and Texas areas after the wild weather brought down powerlines.

Council workers and police were called to fallen trees across the New England Highway between Uralla and Bendemeer, and Inverell had recorded more than 34mm of rain from 9am to 4pm yesterday.

Woolbrook had 31mm, Glen Innes 16.8mm and Armidale 3.8mm, but on the slopes and plains, the rain to 4pm was scarce, with Tamworth recording less than 1mm.

The unsettled weather is set to continue for the next few days, with an 80 per cent chance of up to 20mm in Tamworth today and up to 15mm tomorrow.

Armidale, too, has a high chance of receiving up to 15mm for the next few days. Moree has a 90 per cent possibility of between 20 and 40mm today, and Gunnedah is looking at between 10 and 20mm.

Nigel Smedley, from the Bureau of Meteorology, said the storms, which were still moving through the region late yesterday, were due to a trough passing across inland NSW, which would deepen today, before weakening tomorrow and Thursday.

This trough is also bringing with it some relief from the heat of the past week, with most regional centres expecting temperatures well below the January average in the next few days.

Tamworth is looking at a maximum of 26 degrees Celsius today, and just 23C tomorrow and Thursday, compared to an average for this time of year of almost 32C.

On the tablelands, Armidale is expected to get to just 21C today, 18C tomorrow and 19C on Thursday, with Glen Innes expecting similar maximums, and some cool starts to the mornings. 

For this time of year, that’s up to eight degrees cooler than normal.