The Lower Hunter is still heading for its first water restrictions in 25 years after last week's coastal drenching made little impression on catchment areas.
Parts of Lake Macquarie copped almost 200 millimetres of rain late last week as the State Emergency Service was kept busy with 332 calls for help across the Central Coast and Hunter.
Swansea received 194mm of rain, Nobbys and Williamtown 88mm and Maitland 47mm.
The SES rescued motorists caught in flood waters in three cars on the Central Coast and one at Glendale late on Thursday night.
An SES spokesman said last week's wild weather was concentrated in the Central Coast and Newcastle. Sydney, by contrast, recorded only 140 calls for help.
He said the vast majority of call-outs were for water inundation of houses due to overflowing gutters or drainage problems.
But comparatively little rain fell where it was needed in the Upper Hunter.
The weather station at Lostock Dam recorded just 0.4mm of rain last week. Glenbawn Dam received 21mm and Chichester Dam 14mm. Weather stations in the Scone area received between 7mm and 20mm.
Murrurundi, which has been on level-six water restrictions since mid-2018 and is carting in water from Scone, received just 0.3mm.
Considerably more rain fell near the water stores at Grahamstown Dam, Tomago and Anna Bay, but a Hunter Water spokesperson said on Sunday that the Lower Hunter was still on track for level-one water restrictions from September 16.
The Lower Hunter water stores were at 63.4 per cent capacity on Friday, their lowest level in more than two decades after a long period of warm, dry conditions.
"It may help wet the catchment areas, but we would need more follow-up rain to produce enough stream flow to significantly boost our dam levels," Hunter Water's executive drought lead, Darren Cleary, said.
Level-one restrictions include a ban on all sprinklers and other measures limiting water usage.
Mr Cleary said level-two restrictions could be in place by December.
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