Melbourne Records Lowest Rainfall in 150 years

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Who says the weather is rubbish in Melbourne:spinny:

 

Below is an article from todays Herald Sun which can be found here: Melbourne records lowest rainfall in 153 years | Herald Sun

 

 

 

MELBOURNE has recorded its driest September in more than 150 years as the drought continues to plague southeastern Australia.

Just 12mm of rain fell in the city, the lowest since records began in 1855. The previous driest September was in 1907 when 13.4mm of rain fell.

September is usually one of the wettest months of the year, with the city's rainfall averaging 57.8mm.

In a statement released today the Weather Bureau said: "This record low rainfall in September continues the very long drought which has affected Melbourne (and indeed most of southeast Australia) since late 1996.

"With just 3 months left in 2008, it is now virtually certain that Melbourne will record its 12th consecutive calendar year with below average rainfall. The previous record is six years set in 1979 to 1984, highlighting the unprecedented severity of the current drought."

Across the state it was the same story with 11 towns recording falls of below 10mm.

The state's driest town was Mildura in the state's northwest where just 2.2mm of rain fell for the month, followed by Kerang and Echuca with 5mm.

Other areas to record falls of below 10mm for September include Shepparton, Bendigo, Warracknabeal and Swan Hill.

The highest rainfall of 136mm was recorded at Weeaproinah in southwest Victoria, but even that was below average for the area which usually gets about 200mm of rain in September.

Other big falls were at Mt Hotham with 94mm and in the Grampians which received 86.4mm.

The weather bureau's monthly climate summary also shows daytime temperatures for September were above the long-term normal in most districts.

Mildura, Hopetoun, Swan Hill and Kerang in northwest Victoria all recorded the hottest temperature of 34C.

The mercury moved passed the 30C mark in 17 Victorian towns in September including Horsham, Echuca, Kerang, Shepparton and Yarrawonga.

The hot days and low rainfall was not good news for Melbourne's water storages, with the four major catchments receiving just half of their average rainfall. Inflows into reservoirs were also down with less than half the average amount of water flowing in.

The city's storages are at 34.5 per cent. At the same time last year they were just under 40 per cent full.

"This has been one of the driest Septembers on record for our catchments, which is disappointing given that it’s normally one of our prime filling months," Melbourne Water spokesman Andrew McGinnes said.

"Good rainfall during winter helped us recover some ground, but we now have about 90 billion less water in storage compared with the end of September last year.

"This really reinforces the need for everyone to keep saving as much water as they can before the warmer weather sets in."

Ballarat's water supplies are sitting at 9.1 per cent, in Bendigo storages are at 15 per cent, while Geelong's storages are 31.2 per cent full.

[Petals]

Its bad and could get a lot worse if it does not rain in October . Have a look at the Melbourne Water site and how much rain falls in certain areas might be relevant if people like gardening.

 

http://www.melbournewater.com.au/content/water/water_storages/water_storages.asp?

[Guest Barry78]

Not good news, imagine if this happened in the UK, never mind a hose pipe ban you would be banned from brushing your teeth!

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Well we are already on Stage 3A water restrictions and this will probably be moved to Stage 4 in November.

[Petals]

Have to jump in the pond for a wash :smile: