Rain... flamin' Rain !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jarro]

Doesn't it seem really weird that it's raining this much this time of the year ???

I'm glad we're getting some, but it just seems so wrong

[Iain]

I'm pissed off with it because i have to work in it

Ha Ha!!!

[Grunt]

Back home to Sunny Sydney after spending a week on the Gold Coast with pissing down rain and stuck at the mother in laws. Great Week NOT

[Jarro]

Dam totals are now at 20% in SE.QLD now

[Grunt]

Almost 60% here in Sydney, talk of water restriction being eased to level 2 at the end of next month.

[Courty]

98.95% up here at the moment.

[goughy]

I think they said 'woomba got about another 9 days worth!

[poidda]

Drought-breaker La Nina kicks in

By Greg Roberts and Brendan O'Keefe
December 07, 2007 12:12am

Article from:

• Current conditions 'classic La Nina'
• 'Wet summer and autumn ahead'
• Rainfalls of 'biblical proportions' still needed

THE drought-breaking La Nina weather pattern has finally kicked in, bringing flooding rains along the eastern coast and filling the tributaries that feed into the dying Murray-Darling river system.

Forecasters are predicting a wet summer and autumn but remain unwilling, at least officially, to call the end of the worst drought in living memory. And they warn it would still take rains of "biblical proportions" to fill the dams of cities and towns.
In-depth coverage: Latest news on the environment
Multimedia: Bali talks to discuss future of Kyoto Protocol As Adelaide sweltered through a 37C day that sparked bushfires across the state, the eastern states continued to enjoy good rainfall. One-in-20-year storms bucketed parts of Sydney and Wollongong yesterday, with 70mm falling in an hour in several suburbs.

Current conditions 'classic La Nina'
National Climate Centre head of climate analysis David Jones said the current event was a "classic La Nina", with warm, humid conditions and plenty of moisture in the atmosphere.

The southern oscillation index - the standard indicator of pressure systems in the Pacific region - stands at plus 10, indicating a return to wetter conditions.
Across the eastern half of Australia, a La Nina event became better established as sea surface temperatures dropped in the eastern Pacific and waters off Java became warmer than normal.
The wettest conditions in a decade in western Queensland have put a spring in the step of locals and raised hopes that the Murray-Darling is in for a reprieve. The Bulloo Highway west of the township of Eulo has been cut for a week by the flooded Paroo River.

'Best rain in years'
"We moved out here from Brisbane three years and we haven't seen anything like this before," said 11-year-old Samuel Baker as he played in the flood waters with classmates.
"This is the best rain we've had in years," said Eulo General Store owner Gary Berghoefer.
"The Paroo has been three or four kilometres wide in places. The rain will allow restocking on properties that have been hurting."

Murweh Shire Council chief executive Chris Blanch said Charleville had 160mm of rain over the past month.

"Years of dust is being washed off everything. Plants and trees are sprouting new growth all over the place. It's a godsend," Mr Blanch said.

Warm water promotes convection and stronger westerly trade winds brought by La Nina blow moisture towards Australia, promising a return to good rainfall.

The La Nina is expected to remain until about April.

But Dr Jones warned that long-term rainfall deficiencies, especially around Melbourne, the Murray-Darling, Adelaide and southwest Western Australia, meant a return to full dams was "difficult to imagine".

"Large reservoirs in the southeast have been drawn down over the last decade and at this stage it's difficult to imagine those returning to pre-drought conditions in any foreseeable time frame," Dr Jones said.

'Rainfall of biblical proportions' needed

"Of the large catchments in the Murray-Darling Basin, most are around 20 per cent of capacity and they will be drawn down over summer.

"Unless we see rainfall of biblical proportions, these large dams will be close to empty come autumn."

University of Southern Queensland professor of climate and water resources Roger Stone said it would take "more than one decent wet season to break the drought".

"Areas with major water shortages would need 200mm a month for a couple of months to make a serious impact on dam levels," Professor Stone said.

Murray-Darling Basin Commission director Wendy Craik said that while welcome, the Queensland rains would do little to boost flows in the Murray and Darling rivers.

"What we really need is sustained rainfall over a much wider area," Dr Craik said.

More rain on the way

Medium-term forecasts hold for cooler and wetter conditions for parts of the country.

In the week to next Wednesday, according to the US National Centres for Environmental Prediction, rainfall is expected to be 500 per cent higher than normal in the Hunter region of NSW, on the NSW northern tablelands, southeast and central Queensland, and central WA.

In the week to December 20, the NCEP forecasts falls of up to 150mm for northeastern NSW. Southeast Queensland and the southern half of Cape York peninsula can expect 85mm to 100mm, it says.

The NCEP says the southern half of Western Australia will be up to 2C cooler in the week to next Wednesday.
Dam levels have, however, changed little in the past week. Melbourne's dams held 39.7per cent of capacity, down from 40per cent last week.

Dr Jones said Melbourne's two-year rain total, this year and last, looked likely to be the lowest on record.

Brisbane's dams held 20 per cent, Perth held 42.6 per cent, Hobart's held 84.4 per cent, and Canberra's 43.68 per cent. Sydney's rose 0.7per cent to 59.5 per cent. The main dam, Warragamba, was at its fullest since early 2003.

[Grunt]

Decent old storm about to hit south west sydney, really soon

http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR033.loop.shtml

[Fishman Dan]

26 stories up and we can't see the building across the road.

[BrisVegas]

bet it's a nice afternoon on sydney's roads....

[markTHEblake]

Roads? Fishman is only 25 floors up now.

[Grunt]

Storm hit, dog going nuts, Tayla whining that I have to close all the doors. Next thing I hear a knock at the door. Neighbor informs me that my car door is open. Tayla had left her door open after we got home from shopping. Now have a very wet back section of the Focus. Not a good afternoon.

Just perfect way to end a crap day minding a sick kid with Gastro

[Fishman Dan]

Sydney - Observatory Hill

4:30pm: 1.6mm
5:00pm: 29.2mm

Blue skies now out west. Beautiful summer day!!

[Jarro]

Brissy is getting some good rain at the moment.

Great for the garden/lawn/watertanks .....

.. not good for PGA Golf events at Coolum

[Moe Norman]

last night in Graceville was the heaviest rain I've seen in about 18 months.

[Moe Norman]

alot of earth being moved there....

[AndyP]

The rain got me as I was staggering home from the bus at about 2am this morning. It was.....refreshing.

[Courty]

http://www.cairnspost.com.au/article...4890_news.html

[Jarro]

There's talk of another tropical low making it's way down the Queensland coast later this week ....... more rain on the way folks

There HAS to be a significant increase in our dam levels now surely

[Eag's]

There's talk of another tropical low making it's way down the Queensland coast later this week ....... more rain on the way folks

There HAS to be a significant increase in our dam levels now surely

Nope, they said last night that with the falls we have had so far have only given us 5-7 more days supply

[PeteyD]

They lie a lot. Wivenhoe is flood mitagation downstream from Somerset (It was after 1974 when the release of water from Somerset resulted in the flood). Wivenhoe won't fill up until Somerset is full and flowing into it and not designed to have a significant catchment. The %age of Somerset is a lot more important. Wivenhoe is also huge, so needs a lot of inflow to show changes.

They also talk about rainfall at the dam walls which is useless. Catchment rainfalls is what is important. Hopefully some more rain from these lows coming down will fall in the Somerset catchment.

[AndyP]

Two weeks extra according to this:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...02/2130368.htm


Do you think if we keep getting rain, they'll relax the restrictions at some stage?

[Jarro]

I'm sure i read somewhere that they are very unlikely to relax the restrictions ...... for the very reason they probably don't tell us the exact levels in the dams ..... for fear that people will go nuts and use heaps of water on mass !!

[Grunt]

Same thing happened when we got the good rains a few months ago. Have heard rumours for a while now that the dam levels are way better than those released in the press.