Darwin has experienced negative rainfall � more atmospheric evaporation than downpour � during the city's hottest February on record.

Negative rainfall is not uncommon during Darwin's dry season months of May through to September, when the days are normally warm and humidity is low.

But last month's unusual climatic conditions saw negative rainfall during the traditionally wet season.

For the entire month, 177.4mm of rain was evaporated while just 149.6mm of rain was recorded, putting Darwin rainfall almost 28mm in the red across those 29 days.

Darwin typically averages 374.3mm of rain in February.

The city's February average daytime temperature was 33.5 degrees Celsius, up from the 1964 record of 33.1C.

The Northern Territory is sweltering through one of its poorest wet seasons on record.

Rainfall data compiled by the Bureau of Meteorology shows a number of regions have received well below their average rainfall from October 1 to February 29.

The low rainfall has combined with a number of high temperature records which were broken in February.

The bad news for pastoralists, is the three month outlook predicts more drier than average conditions.

"Overall it's not looking great," senior meteorologist Greg Browning said.