This animation shows the change in the ten-year moving average of annual rainfall from 1940 to 2019. Note the high degree of inter-annual variability in annual rainfall, particularly in the pastoral areas.

Starting in the 1970s, rainfall declines along the west coast and in the southwest of the State as rainfall zones moved in a south-westerly direction. Since the early 2000s, summer rainfall has increased and inter-annual rainfall variability has decreased in the north and central areas of the State.