The wild weather soaking much of New South Wales at the moment is just a taste of what is to come for grey nomads across the country in coming days.
The ABC reports that the ‘prolonged weather event’ in NSW, which is not expected to ease until the end of next week, has already broken annual rainfall records in many locations including the Mid-North Coast where more than 350mm of water fell in the last day.
It has caused major roads including the Pacific Highway to be cut and numerous caravan parks and camping areas to be evacuated,
But meteorologists warn that a deepening low off the New South Wales coast is now due to meet a north-west cloud band stretching from the Kimberley to Tasmania … and that means soaking rains for more than two-thirds of the country next week.
“It is a pretty intense set-up,” senior forecaster Jackson Browne from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) told the ABC. “A lot of that tropical activity and tropical moisture will be drawn down by this really large mid-latitude system … that’s going to have a secondary pulse of intense rainfall.”
The bureau predicts temperatures will also be exceptionally cold and wet in Central Australia as the cloud band passes through.
“At this time of year it’s typical to get 35, 40 degrees C there, and we’re talking temperatures on the order of a maximum of 20 degrees,” Mr Browne said.
The cloud band is expected to extend into Queensland, NSW, and eventually Victoria and Tasmania early next week.
“Many locations will receive at least a month’s worth of rainfall. In some places two to three times what they can expect to receive in March,” Mr Browne told the ABC.
But- -But – – But – – Didn’t Tim Flannery say the dams would NEVER be full again?
Maybe that’s why they’re draining Warragamba now so that it won’t get full and Tim’s reputation will remain … er ahem, ‘untarnished’.
I live in Brisbane’s far western suburbs. Our summer rain has been below average. Wivenhoe Dam is at 36% and falling rapidly. Many places west of here are in a green drought and heading for a very dry winter. We need at least 500mm or more to improve soil moisture and start topping up the reservoirs.
If you received 500mm , you would be flooded again, perhaps as Wivenhoe and Somerset would be under intense stress.
Image the mess IF theses dam weakened and let go.
Brisbane needs to go into the future with huge dam at top of the Brisbane valley.
Pumping water from both dams when over 75%
using for storage, then electricity generation on topping up.
Would take the pressure off both aging dams Somerset and Wivenhoe walls.
Enabling both dams being able to be kept at 75%.
I know the greens will complain…let them as they will scream louder as water is tightly restricted with the population increasing as it is.
Careful what you ask for as 500mm is a lot of rain when you consider the catchment area for all that water to pass through Brisbane area.. now that the river has been clogged with even more floating walkways and not dredged for many years..
The flood that the govt is still dodging to payout on is just a sample of what 500mm would do today.
Only have to know how full the Darling River is now to know how the REST of NSW is fairing. It’s not just about the coast you know.