Early heat puts pressure on Melbourne water
By BRIDIE SMITH
November 9, 2009 MELBOURNE’S water storage is set to fall for the first time in four months this week, as a record string of hot November days coincides with reduced run-off and a lack of spring rain. While catchments were still benefiting from last month’s falls, water flowing into reservoirs has gradually decreased. This week’s warm temperatures and absence of rain will probably result in levels going backwards for the first time since July 1. ”They will go down this week,” Melbourne Water spokesman Nicolas McGay said yesterday. The last time storage decreased, supplies were at 26 per cent. Storage is now 38.1 per cent full, compared with 33.7 per cent this time last year. Melbourne is in the middle of a four-day stint of 30-plus degree days – the first of the bushfire season and the most recorded for November in more than a century. …
