More water in Melbourne dams but still 65 percent below average

March 1, 2010 Melbourne has got through summer with 83 billion litres more water in its dams than for the same time last year thanks to welcome rain, household water savings and flows from two major water projects. Figures released on Monday – the first day of autumn – by Melbourne Water show that the […]

Record floods sweep across two Australia states

  By RACHEL BROWNE AND KYM AGIUSMarch 7, 2010 RESIDENTS in two states were battling against severe weather yesterday that brought record floodwaters, torrential rain, 100km/h winds and hailstones as big as golf balls. Emergency services in the southwest Queensland town of St George were last night preparing for a flood peak expected to inundate […]

Extreme weather causing U.S. home foundations to fail

  By KATE MURPHYPublished: March 3, 2010 STEVEN DERSE, the owner of a corporate travel business in Nashville, cannot feel his house move, but he can hear it. “It’s an eerie creaking sound,” he said, and it echoes throughout his two-story Georgian-style house. It started two years ago when a severe drought contracted the soil […]

Perth water supplies could halve by 2030

March 3, 2010 (AAP) A worst-case scenario on Perth’s water resources says supplies could dip by nearly 50 per cent in the next 20 years. A CSIRO report has projected a marked decrease in river flows and water yields in WA’s South-West by 2030. It said under the best case scenario surface water yields would […]

Graph of the Day: Trends in Historic European Droughts, 1962-2004

Trends in drought: Is drought becoming more extreme? Meteorological drought (Temperature, Precipitation including snow) Hydrological drought (groundwater, river flow) Timing of minimum flow (earlier, later…)About 600 small, undisturbed basins Period: 1962-2004Significant negative trends: 8.7%Significant positive trends: 0.4% Lanen, H.A.J. van; Mysiak, J.; Harding, R., Drought: Key Achievements and Challenges, Brussels, Belgium : 2009 Invited presentation […]

Western Australia has hottest and driest summer on record

www.mongabay.comMarch 02, 2010 Western Australia endured its hottest summer on record, according to the state weather bureau. At 29.6°C, temperatures were 0.2°C warmer than the previous record, set in 1997-1998. Western Australia has been keeping state-wide temperature data since 1950. Perth, the state’s capital, had its driest summer since record-keeping began in 1897. Only 0.2 […]

Desperate California to get more water, but drought persists

By Dan Whitcomb (Additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Eric Walsh)LOS ANGELESFri Feb 26, 2010 4:33pm EST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Drought-stricken farmers and cities across California were granted a measure of relief on Friday when federal and state officials said they expected to supply significantly more water this year than last. The announcements […]

Record low Mekong River poses threat to millions

By Staff WritersHanoi (AFP) Feb 26, 2010 Water levels in the northern Mekong River are at record-low levels, posing a threat to water supply, navigation and irrigation along a stretch of water that is home to millions, a regional official said. Northern Thailand, northern Laos and southern China have all been affected, Jeremy Bird, chief […]

Historic Mongolia drought and snowfall decimate livestock

Nomads paid to collect goats and yaks killed by extreme drought followed by harsh winter to stop disease and soil contamination By Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondentwww.guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 February 2010 14.06 GMT The United Nations has launched a $4m dollar carcass-clearing appeal for Mongolia as millions of camels, goats, yaks and horses perish across […]

South Africa heatwave kills more than 2,000 ostriches — temperatures soar to over 50°C

By Denene Erasmus, 25 Feb 2010 More than 2 000 ostriches have died in the Klein Karoo, as temperatures soared to more than 50°C in February. This follows the announcement that ostrich farmers in the drought-stricken southern Cape would not be benefiting from the R26,9 million in drought relief made available by the National Treasury for embattled […]

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