There is a certain amount of misunderstanding about the tropical climate of the Top End, usually summed up as the hot and humid "Dry" and the hotter and very humid "Wet". Give or take a couple of weeks either way, this is the pattern: the Dry begins in April when rains stop and humidity decreases - although this always remains high in the tropics, whatever the season. It may take a couple of months for vehicular access to be restored to all far-flung tracks, but the bush never looks greener, while engorged waterfalls pound the base of the escarpments. From now until October skies are generally cloud-free with daily temperatures reliably peaking in the low thirties, though August nights might cool down to 10°C - sheer agony for seasoned Top Enders but bliss for unacclimatized tourists.

 

From October until the end of the year temperatures and humidity begin to rise - the dreaded Build Up . Clouds accumulate to discharge brief showers, and it's a time of year when the weak-willed or insufficiently drunk can go "troppo" as the unbearable tensions of heat and humidity push them over the edge. Around November promising storms can still be frustratingly dry but often give rise to spectacular lightning shows; Darwin is the world's most lightning-prone city. While rain showers become longer and more frequent towards Christmas - the onset of the Wet - access on sealed roads is rarely a problem.

Only when the actual monsoon commences at the turn of the year do the daily afternoon storms quickly rejuvenate and then saturate the land. This daily cycle lasts for at least three months and is much more tolerable than you might expect, with a daily thunderous downpour cooling things off from the mid- to the low-thirties. Along with Queensland's Cape York, Darwin's proximity to the equator gives it a true monsoon. Two hundred kilometres south the rains are much less heavy, though a Wet is experienced along the coast as far southwest as Derby, WA and Townsville on the north Queensland coast.

Cyclones , sometimes just a week apart, occur most commonly at either end of the Wet and can dump 30cm of rain in as many hours, with winds of 100kph and gusts twice that speed. Frequent updates on the erratic path and intensity of these tropical depressions are given on national and state radio, so that most people are fully prepared if and when the storm actually hits. Some fizzle out or head back out to sea; others can intensify and zigzag across the land, as nearly every community between Exmouth, WA (1996) and Darwin (1974) has found to its cost.