[Aliantha]

It's been going about 200 - 300 km inland, but mostly that's where it comes from. Builds over land behind the range and then heads back out towards sea. Something like this:

Water evaporates from the ocean and ends up in the warm air which is pushed inland by easterly sea breezes which then hits cool air coming off the desert at night and voila...you have a thunderstorm.

To answer your question though, a lot of rain has fallen in the catchments for our dams, which is in an area known as 'the salad bowl'. Obviously a lot of vegetables grown there.

So yes, the rain has helped somewhat with some drought areas and overall things are looking pretty good if you don't count all the homes that've been damaged in the city.