Australia faces end of Big Dry – Agriculture subsidies withdrawn – Record rainfall in Queensland
[Declaring an end to the Big Dry seems premature, cf.:
While the systematic accumulation of rainfall deficits was reversed with the heavy spring and summer rainfall of 2010, the total two-year record rainfall makes up for about one third of the total rainfall ‘missed out on’ since 1996. Additionally, the recovery peaked in autumn 2011, with a return to deficits from that time on. In other words, the accumulated below-normal rainfall during the ‘Big Dry’ remains substantially greater than the extra spring and summer rainfall that has fallen during the past two years.
Arguably, and by many measures such as increases in soil moisture, refilling of dams, and frequent flooding etc., the long dry can now be said to be over. This is certainly true of the northern parts of the Murray-Darling Basin where severe drought conditions have given way to flooding. However, the 15-year and the 10-year rainfall decile maps (Figures 3 and 4) show that over much of southeastern Australia and southwestern Australia large areas of below-average and very-much-below-average rainfall remain, while pockets of record-low 15-year totals are evident along the coast in southwest WA, western Tasmania and parts of Victoria including near the catchments for Melbourne.
Graph of the Day: Australia Rainfall Deciles, 1 January 1997 – 31 December 2011 Desdemona doubts that even the record flooding of early 2012 is enough to reverse the drought trend. We may hope.]
By Duncan Kennedy
29 April 2012 Sydney (BBC News) – Phew! What a scorcher that was. Australians call it the Big Dry and, after nine parched years, it’s over. It’s the drought that has afflicted large areas of this vast country and now the federal government has officially declared it at an end. The final two areas to be given the all-clear are Bundarra and Eurobodalla in the south-eastern state of New South Wales. In practical terms, it means that the last of special subsidies to farmers are being withdrawn. It’s the end of “Exceptional Circumstances”, or EC, to use the bureaucratic jargon. “The seasonal outlook is brighter than it has been for many years and the improved conditions are a welcome reprieve for farmers across Australia,” said Joe Ludwig, Australia’s agriculture minister. He said the end of the drought would be a “a major milestone for agriculture in Australia”. Since 2001, the government has provided 4.5bn Australian dollars ($4.7bn, £2.9bn) in EC assistance. That’s the money handed out to struggling farmers, totalling between 400 and 600 dollars each, every fortnight.
Some farmers say the move to take away the EC assistance is premature. The National Farmers Federation said the government’s “snap decision” to cut subsidies was “baffling”. “With no areas likely to be drought-declared in the near future and with a programme to develop alternatives already under way, we ask the question of government: why the rush?” the federation’s president Jock Laurie said. Australia’s current drought really took hold from 2003 and, depending on the area, has lasted on and off ever since. […] The succession of droughts has lead some to question the future of population growth in Australia. The environmental organisation, Sustainable Population Australia, says Australia cannot continue to maintain its current rate of population growth without becoming overpopulated, in terms of access to water. […] The population of Australia is about the same as Texas. But, even with only 23 million people, the pressures on water supplies are intense. […] Yet, just when it seems that Australians are doomed to live in a land lacking in water, comes news from the Bureau of Meteorology that 2011 was the third-wettest year on record and the wettest since 1970. It’s this sustained onslaught of rain over the past two years, that has, in part, enabled the government to declare the end to droughts, even if, at the same time, it has also had to deal with the catastrophic flooding that has accompanied the deluge. […]
Australia faces the end of Big Dry
Greg Swain
29 April 2012 The Gold Coast has been drenched with the heaviest day of rain since 2005 and parts of Brisbane have fared little better, Weatherzone reports. Rainfall totals of 100-150mm were recorded along the coast from Brisbane’s northeastern suburbs south to Tweed Heads over the past 24 hours. The greater Brisbane area also recorded widespread totals of more than 50mm.
The heaviest rain in the past 24 hours fell on the Gold Coast where 183mm was recorded. This represented the largest 24 hour total for the region since June 2005, Weatherzone said. It was also the wettest April day in the 17 years of records at the site. In just one half hour period, 34mm fell, creating enough run-off to cause flash flooding. Brisbane recorded 76mm since yesterday morning with Brisbane Airport amassing 126mm – it’s heaviest April day of rain since records began in 2001. The city reached a top of just 19 degrees yesterday, its lowest maximum for this year. […]
