Last month the 12th driest July on record

Australia has just emerged from its 12^th driest July on record.

A drier than average month was on the cards, and that's exactly how July played out.

Barely a drop of rain falling in many parts of the country.

Rainfall for the month was down across all our capital cities.

And below to very much below for large swathes of inland Australia including right through NSW, Southern Queensland, South Australia and South West WA.

Frequent rain in Western Tasmania, parts of Northern Queensland and the gulf coast, resulting in higher than average falls there, but overall the nation was overwhelmingly dry.

Over 120 years' worth of Julys, we have just emerged from our 12^th driest on record.

NSW had its 14th driest July on record with an average of 14.2 millimetres collected in the state's gauges. South Australia -  its eighth driest on record, with just 5.9 millimetres on average in the state's gauges.

On the other hand, a bumper month of rain through Tasmania sending it right down in the ranking of dry Julys, sitting at 108 out of 120 years of record-keeping.

The below average rain went hand in hand with rising temperatures. The country as whole went through July with warmer than average temperatures.

Sydney have just come out of a run of balmy winter days, recording its second warmest July on record. The city had an average maximum temperature of 19.7 degrees. Which is more than 3 degrees higher than normal.

The month's exceptionally dry conditions and rising heat has exacerbated the pain for many communities still in the grip of our worst drought in history.