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Since records began in 1900 Australia had only two triple La Niña events. Now we have three: the Bureau of Meteorology just declared the third La Niña. Like I said, we’re on a roll. Kate Doyle has the story.
Meteorological services overseas had declared the start of La Niña last August, but our BOM follows a slightly more conservative methodology and had refrained from following them. No more.
This third La Niña comes after two extremely rainy years (see above) and the ground is saturated, rivers and creeks and dams are full.
On top the other two main weather drivers (the Southern Annular Mode and the Indian Ocean Dipole) also point to rain.
Of course, nobody can predict at this moment how much or where and when it will rain in the next few months. But chances don’t seem too good for a little more than half Australia:
Australia is the lucky country!
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If recent research is correct, the American south west states may not be seeing much rain any time soon.
The Colorado River is the main freshwater source for those states (and northern Mexico). The drought has left it seriously depleted, Barbara Miller reports.
The thing is even in the best of times the so-called mighty Colorado, with a discharge of merely some 600 cubic metres of water per second, is little more than a miserable creek, compared to the Danube or the Rhine (7 thousand and 3 thousand, respectively), let alone the Yangtze River (some 30 thousand cubic metres of water per second). If those rivers are running dry, what is astonishing is that the Colorado has lasted so long and that authorities allowed 40 million people to depend on such absurdly insufficient source of water.
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Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
Amen.