When Blackalls Park’s Warren George signed up as one of The Star’s weather watchers last year, he did not know that his trusty rain gauge would be one of the hardest working gauges in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.

Of all suburbs across the region, Blackalls Park has consistently recorded the highest amount of rain each fortnight in the Star’s weather watch.

Last month, Mr George recorded 14 days of continuous rain to record a mammoth 467 millimetres - almost a 200mm increase from April last year when Mr George recorded 277mm.

Mr George has kept his rain records since 2005.

In April that year when Blackalls Park had 48.5mm and in 2006 only a mere 18.5mm.

“You can safely say that Hughey has a bizarre sense of humour when it comes to weather in Australia.”

This fluctuating weather is not uncommon.

Bureau of Meteorology Williamtown technical officer Scott Adams said the first six months of the year were normally the wettest months of the year.

“So far Williamtown has recorded 722mm – a lot more than its average 452mm.”

(Williamtown recorded 251mm last month – two and half times the average of its 101.8.)

But Mr Adams said it was unlikely it would continue.

“There is a fair chance that, if we have recorded above average rainfall in the first five months, that the next two months (May and June) will record below average rainfall.”

But it is not only Blackalls Park that has been caught the rain.

At the University of Newcastle in April 248.7mm was recorded – 91.2mm fell on Friday, April 25 – however, last year for the month only 166.9mm was recorded.

However, Newcastle has been a nominally with Nobbys recording 213mm last month, which is less than last year’s 272mm.

It is a far cry from Newcastle’s wettest April on record, which weatherzone.com.au lists as 546.4mm in 1931.

But thanks to the far-reaching downpour all three dams are at capacity – Grahamstown Dam is 97.3 per cent and Chichester Dam and Tomago Sandbeds are 100pc full.

But it is not all good news with the heavy rain.

It has been blamed for causing subsidence in at least eight old mine workings in the Hunter.

The largest subsidence at Charlotte Street, Wallsend, where a section of the road collapsed into a hole four-metres deep.

Another collapse was in Hill Street North in Lambton, which left a crater around two-metres deep.

April has also been heralded as Sydney’s coldest in nine years by weatherzone.com.au.

It coldest temp was 17 degrees Celius, followed by a high of 27.

Newcastle had more extreme temperatures with mercury dropping down to 7.5 for and rising to 26.9.

And according The Star’s weather watchers Blackalls Park plummeted to a cold 10 degrees and Mount Hutton rocketed to a balmy 28.9 degrees.