Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast have been officially drought declared as the region stares down the barrel of a hot, dry summer.
The Department of Primary Industries classification comes after Dungog, Port Stephens and Maitland fell into drought in early August.
Twenty per cent of the Hunter is now in drought while the remainder is drought affected.
"It's fairly grim looking forward," Seaham resident and Dungog Shire councillor Digby Raywood said.
"We hardly got any rain last night, maybe 7mm but the wind today will take that away."
"The cattle prices have gone through the floor. A lot of farmers are carefully weighing up their options."
The worsening conditions follow a dire Bureau of Meteorology warning of an emerging El Nino climate pattern, which is driving the south east of the country towards a scorching summer.
For many it has revived memories of the last drought gripped the region between 2017 and 2020.
The Lower Hunter's falling water storages have charted the region's descent into drought over recent months.
Combined storage levels stood at 87.2 per cent on Thursday, down from 12.8 per cent a year ago.
But they are still a long way off from the low point of 52.7 per cent that was reached in early 2020.
"Our water levels do drop faster than most other major Australian urban centres during hot, dry periods because we have shallow water storages and high evaporation rates," a Hunter Water spokesman said.
"Our variable climate means we can go from our current healthy levels of water storage to empty in just three years. That may sound like a fair amount of time, but it's really not when you're looking at what we might need to do to ensure that our region doesn't run out of water."
Upper Hunter Water storages are also slipping fast following one of the driest winters on record.
"The government really needs to get up here," Upper Hunter Shire mayor Maurice Collison said.
"The water is going to disappear, the feed is disappearing and the cattle markets are disgraceful. We need the pollies to get out of the city and take a look around."
The not-for-profit Aussie Hay Runners recently announced it would head to the Upper Hunter for the first time in response to the worsening conditions.
A convoy of 34 trucks, with hay donations coming from Victoria and Southern NSW is due to arrive in Merriwa on Friday October 13.
Meanwhile, the threat of fires is also increasing as the region dries out.
Crown Lands has been conducting aerial fire trail inspections across the Hunter and Central Coast regions as part of a statewide inspection program leading into summer.
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service said on Thursday that it had closed the Watagans National Park to keep the public safe from bushfires.
The closure will give firefighting staff a safe space to undertake fire suppression activities such as back-burning, if required.
Despite a small reprieve from Wednesday night's rain and the coming cooler weather, Thursday's fire danger rating reached extreme levels in some parts of the Hunter and Central Coast.
NPWS put a fire ban in place throughout the Watagans National Park across the October long weekend due to the elevated fire risk, with a Total Fire Ban declared on Sunday 1 October.
