Post by greysrigging on Apr 4, 2024 6:25:02 GMT -5
Hard to find two more contrasting climates in Australia...
Both places have experience extreme conditions of dry and wet in the last 12 months.
BUSSELTON:
As you can see, the southwest corner of WA, southeast SA, and most of Vic and Tas had severe rainfall deficiencies or even their driest March on record, as persistent blocking highs parked themselves over the Southern Ocean, preventing moisture-laden cold fronts from moving north.
Unusually, the eastern half of central and southern WA saw heavy rain in March due to a tropical moisture feed which we wrote about extensively as parts of the Nullarbor flooded.
Meanwhile there was heavy rain on Monday across most of Victoria and Tasmania, relieving the situation in those states to a degree.
But for Perth, there was no love from the weather gods in March and as mentioned, the pattern has not yet broken, with no indication of significant or indeed any rain over the next week or immediately beyond that time frame.
And it's not just the WA capital that remains parched.
Busselton is a coastal town just over 200 km south of Perth which is known as the gateway to the Margaret River wine region. As you can see on the graph below, so far this year it has had just 0.8 mm of rain !
There was 0.4 mm on one day in January, the same amount on one day in February, and literally nothing in the whole of March or in April to date.
So when you hear people from Perth and nearby parts of Western Australia complaining about the dry spell, it is definitely not sour grapes.
BORROLOOLA:
The remnants of Severe Tropical Cyclone Megan will carry heavy rain across the NT over the next few days as communities assess the damage in the powerful system’s wake.
Megan made landfall as a category three severe tropical cyclone on Monday afternoon, crossing the coast to the southeast of Port McArthur. The tropical cyclone caused powerful winds and torrential rain over the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria as it approached and crossed the coast.
Centre Island, which experienced the brunt of Megan’s severe weather, registered wind gusts of up to 170 km/h on Monday afternoon. It also received more than 500 mm of rain during the 48 hours ending at 8 am ACST on Tuesday, which is roughly half a year’s worth of rain for the island.
Residents in the town of Borroloola had to hunker down and ride out Megan’s ferocious weather, taking shelter in the police station and other buildings capable of withstanding a severe tropical cyclone.
Borroloola’s weather station received just over 300 mm of rain during the 24 hours ending at 3:05am ACST on Tuesday, which was more than a month’s worth of rain at this time of year.
Last 12 months temps and rainfall:
Both places have experience extreme conditions of dry and wet in the last 12 months.
BUSSELTON:
As you can see, the southwest corner of WA, southeast SA, and most of Vic and Tas had severe rainfall deficiencies or even their driest March on record, as persistent blocking highs parked themselves over the Southern Ocean, preventing moisture-laden cold fronts from moving north.
Unusually, the eastern half of central and southern WA saw heavy rain in March due to a tropical moisture feed which we wrote about extensively as parts of the Nullarbor flooded.
Meanwhile there was heavy rain on Monday across most of Victoria and Tasmania, relieving the situation in those states to a degree.
But for Perth, there was no love from the weather gods in March and as mentioned, the pattern has not yet broken, with no indication of significant or indeed any rain over the next week or immediately beyond that time frame.
And it's not just the WA capital that remains parched.
Busselton is a coastal town just over 200 km south of Perth which is known as the gateway to the Margaret River wine region. As you can see on the graph below, so far this year it has had just 0.8 mm of rain !
There was 0.4 mm on one day in January, the same amount on one day in February, and literally nothing in the whole of March or in April to date.
So when you hear people from Perth and nearby parts of Western Australia complaining about the dry spell, it is definitely not sour grapes.
BORROLOOLA:
The remnants of Severe Tropical Cyclone Megan will carry heavy rain across the NT over the next few days as communities assess the damage in the powerful system’s wake.
Megan made landfall as a category three severe tropical cyclone on Monday afternoon, crossing the coast to the southeast of Port McArthur. The tropical cyclone caused powerful winds and torrential rain over the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria as it approached and crossed the coast.
Centre Island, which experienced the brunt of Megan’s severe weather, registered wind gusts of up to 170 km/h on Monday afternoon. It also received more than 500 mm of rain during the 48 hours ending at 8 am ACST on Tuesday, which is roughly half a year’s worth of rain for the island.
Residents in the town of Borroloola had to hunker down and ride out Megan’s ferocious weather, taking shelter in the police station and other buildings capable of withstanding a severe tropical cyclone.
Borroloola’s weather station received just over 300 mm of rain during the 24 hours ending at 3:05am ACST on Tuesday, which was more than a month’s worth of rain at this time of year.
Last 12 months temps and rainfall:
