IT'S BEEN a year since an "awesome" super cell thunderstorm hit the region, dumping a deluge of rain and flooding the Oxley Highway.
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A year on, this February has so far proven cooler and drier than the last.
Tamworth Regional Weather Facebook page administrator and long-time citizen scientist Dave Farrenden said the wild weather the region saw around this time last year really struck him.
The storm chaser was sitting on the edge of the cell, out near the Tamworth airport.
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"She was a pretty awesome storm," he told the Leader.
"You could see the massive amount of rain that was coming out of it as it moved across, and it was very slow moving.
"The clouds were virtually dragging along the ground they were so low ... those low based storms act like a bit of a rain bomb."
Mr Farrenden said he had never seen the Oxley Highway - which connects Tamworth and Gunnedah - flood the way it did.
"It was a massive storm that provided some very hectic flash flooding," he said.
It marked the start of a busy year for the page's admins, but also reinforced the reasons why they started the page in the first place, and why they will continue to keep it free into the future.
"I think that's the joy of Facebook, we can go live and encourage people to report what they see - as long as they don't put themselves in danger," he said.
"With weather warnings, they can only see what's on the radar, whereas we see it live and people report in and it makes a big difference."
Despite the milder weather so far this year, after a wild start to the storm season, Mr Farrenden said forecasts show the city could still get wet again before La Nina dries up.
"Gunnedah already hit the 80mm mark this month, which is over the average ... Tamworth's a fair way away from the average, but it certainly could be achieved," Mr Farrenden said.
The weather has also been cooler this year, and the weather enthusiast said Tamworth had been sitting about 1.4 degrees below the February maximum temperature average.
In January, that figure was more like 2.3 degrees.
"You do see this through La Nina, there is more cloud cover and more rain," Mr Farrenden said.
Tamworth is forecast to hit a low of 11 degrees overnight on Thursday, and showers are forecast for later in the week.