A MULTIMILLIONAIRE internet entrepreneur worried about climate change bankrolled the Greens’ federal election surge last year by making the largest single political donation in Australian history. Read more here.
Annual Climate Statement: Bureau of Meteorology
According to the annual climate statment from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology released on Wednesday, the Australian mean rainfall total for 2010 was 690 mm which is well above the long-term average of 465 mm. As a result, 2010 was Australia’s wettest year since 2000 and the third-wettest year on record (records commence in 1900).
The statement explains that 2010 began with El Niño conditions in the Pacific followed by a rapid transition into La Niña during autumn. From January to May rainfall was generally above average in most areas except the western half of Western Australia and southern Tasmania. By July, La Niña conditions were well established and most areas of Australia experienced very much above average rainfall. The second half of the year (July to December) was the wettest on record for Australia.”
The complete statement is here.
Now all the data is in for 2010 it is possible to construct timeseries graphs for the Murray Darling and Eastern Australia. The above graphs were constructed at the Bureau site here.
These charts suggest Australia could be entering a new wet cycle. Click on the individual charts for a better and larger view.
These charts show that that all the modelling by the CSIRO and others, and all the reports including by Ross Garnaut and Sir Nicolas Stern claiming declining rainfall, were wrong.
This really is good news.
SA Irrigators Still on Restricted Allocation
Despite fearing more flood waters from Queensland into an already full system, South Australian premier says he can’t give his irrigators more water because of restrictive water-allocation cap.
Bill Burrows on the Rockhampton Flood
SOME of you would have heard of Australian rangeland ecologist, Dr Bill Burrows. Bill, now retired, lives on the dunes at Emu Park with views of the flood plume flowing north from the Fitzroy River mouth. According to Bill this has been one of the least dramatic and cleanest floods with only occasional frothing from pollution visible in the Coral Sea and, up to this time, much less debris washing up than even with the much smaller flood in 2006.
Bill witnessed the 1954 flood (the second highest since Europeans arrived) which was still just receding when a young Queen Elizabeth visited Rockhampton on March 16 that year. Bill’s father was a station ‘ringer’ during the 1918 flood; known locally as The Great Flood which peaked at 10.03 metres (almost one metre higher than this event). In the scheme of things, according to Bill, the present case is just another flood and not a particularly severe one relative to 1954 or 1918 – and much cleaner than previous floods, perhaps because of improved land and river bank management.
Cuts to Water Allocations Despite Flooding
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says it is important for work to continue on a plan to cut back water allocations along the Murray-Darling river system despite recent heavy flooding. Read more here.
Snowy Hydro – The Business: Part 1, by Max Talbot
OVER the last few weeks I have posted information suggesting that Snowy Hydro has not managed the vast waters under its control appropriately and in particular that it has failed to store flood waters for subsequence seasons and even exacerbated flooding in the Riverina by making water releases from Lake Eucumbene – the system’s central reservoir.
Max Talbot was the Executive Officer Strategic Engineering at Snowy Hydro and Operations Engineer Snowy Mountains Council for many years, retiring in 2003. He has written extensively on the Corporation and recently updated a document ‘Snowy Hydro – The Business’ penned in 2008. Mr Talbot has generously given permission for me to publish this document as a four part series. Following is Part 1 – providing an historical perspective.
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Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.