Showing posts with label drought. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drought. Show all posts

Sunday 10 November 2019

The scale of NSW bushfires is beginning to emerge in November 2019



The New South Wales Northern Rivers region has been experiencing widespread  bushfires since September 2019. According to the NSW Rural Fire Service est. 1,055,168 hectares were on fire on 8-9 November - that's over 2,607,376 acres.

On 9-10 November est. 195,347 hectares on the Mid-North Coast were alight - that's another 482,713 acres.

Elsewhere, between 8-10 November the Tenterfield area had 48,991 hectares burning and another 29 local government areas were also battling bushfires.

Today 41 NSW local government areas officially have a High fire danger rating and another 26 have a Very High fire danger rating, with no rain forecast except for 1mm between Albury and the coast on the NSW-Vic border.

As of 12.30am there were 74 bush fires still burning across the state, 43 are still not under control, 1 fire remains at Emergency Warning and 15 are at Watch and Act.

The end is not yet in sight.

Wednesday 6 November 2019

Alan Jones gets told


Short and sweet.......

The Daily Telegraph, letters to the editor, 31 October 2019p.24:

Going against the flow 
Once again the master statistical manipulator Alan Jones has shot himself in the foot with ignorant claims about the annual water outflow of the Clarence River in northern NSW. As a riverside resident for the past 15 years I’d like to inform Mr Jones that there has been no five million megalitre per annum flows since March 2013 and for the past three years you can straddle the river with both feet upstream of Copmanhurst without getting wet.
Brian Gane, Grafton

Wednesday 30 October 2019

The drying of Australia is beginning to bite its capital cities in 2019


Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Water Storage Summary, 27 October 2019:

Thirty-five days days out from the start of the Australian summer and in the third year of another severe drought -  as of 26 October 2019 - Hobart had 24.8% less stored water than the same day in 2018, Darwin 22.5% less, Brisbane 16.5% less, Sydney 14.9% less, Canberra 12.4% less, Perth 7.7% less, Adelaide 2.4% less and Melbourne 0.6% less.

Current storage levels in the capital cities are:


Australia wide total water storage stood at:


While Rural Water Storage Systems stood at:


Tuesday 22 October 2019

A perfect example of the interconnection between river and groundwater in time of climate change and drought


In times of water scaricity in New South Wales, right after the call for dams and more dams, comes the call to sink more bores to supply additional water.

Here is a clear example of why sinking more bores is not the answer to either drought or climate change, as rivers and grounwater are an interconnected system in which no water is 'additional' water.

It is only the same water constanting re-looping from the clouds to the surface to the aquifer to the surface to the clouds and back round again.

When we deplete river and groundwater through overuse not all of the water taken from streams,  rivers and underground aquifers is recoverable by those natural processes which produce rainfall.

Water NSW, media release18 October 2019:

Restrictions imposed on Maules Creek groundwater use

The NSW government has issued a temporary restriction on groundwater usage in the Maules Creek Groundwater Water Source upstream of Elfin Crossing.
The Temporary Water Restriction has been issued under section 324 of the Water Management Act and means that holders of an Aquifer Access Licence must not take water under that licence from the Upper Namoi Zone 11 Maules Creek Groundwater Source, upstream of Elfin Crossing.
This restriction will be in place from 18 October 2019 to 30 June 2020.
The restriction does not apply to;
  • bores accessing groundwater under basic landholder rights, or
  • for the purposes of testing metering equipment.
Due to the severe drought conditions, there has been no river flows at the Maules Creek Avoca East Gauge since March 2018 and the groundwater observation bore levels near Elfin Crossing for 2019 have been the lowest on record.
These low groundwater levels have impacted the ability to access groundwater for stock, domestic and basic landholder rights.
A series of pools adjacent to Elfin Crossing that support local habitat and maintain the natural ecosystem are also being impacted. The continued depletion of these pools has also led to a deterioration of water quality in Maules Creek, which is currently not fit for human consumption.
This temporary restriction will help to maintain the perennial pool levels in Maules Creek and the groundwater levels in the Maules Creek Groundwater Water Source upstream of Elfin Crossing.
For more information on the temporary restriction visit the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment announcement. 

Tuesday 15 October 2019

Water 101 in Australia: where catchment rainfall is 600mm per year or less a large in-river dam will not fill with water


Geraldine Doogue's ABC Radio Saturday Extra interview with Professor Quentin Grafton, water economist, ANU and UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance on why the political call for more large in-river dams is misguided and only creating problems for the future.

Prof. Grafton asserts that any dams built in an area where the rainfall is 600mm per year or less will not fill with water


Click on: 

https://abcmedia.akamaized.net/rn/podcast/2019/10/sea_20191005_0730.mp3 (14:42mins)

Annual Rainfall 

According to Water NSW published data:

Section of Maryland River, NSW
Google Earth

Maryland River catchment annual rainfall graph/plot is not available or does not exist.

Section of Aberfoyle River, NSW
Google Earth

Aberfoyle River catchment average annual rainfall was less than 600mm in six (6) out of last twenty-one (21) years and less than est. 670mm for another three (3) of those twenty-one years.

Section of the Mole River, NSW
Google Earth

Mole River catchment annual rainfall was less than 600mm in thirteeen (13) of the last eighteen (18) years.

Sunday 29 September 2019

Drought stops Kyogle Fishing Club Family Competition this year


Toonumbar Dam in better days
Image: PDR Nationwide, Kyogle NSW

The Northern Star
, 26 February 2019, p. 5:



The annual restock of Australian bass has been cancelled too.
There just isn’t enough water in the dam.
Club president Barry Reeves has been fishing at Toonumbar Dam since it was built in 1972.
“All we can do is wait for rain,” Mr Reeves said.
Mr Reeves said the Family Fishing Comp planned for February was cancelled due to the red alert on blue-green algae.
The competition was moved to October but with the dam sitting at 54 per cent of its storage capacity, according to WaterNSW, the comp was cancelled again.....

For the first time, the restocking of dam with bass wouldn’t happen either.
Every year Kyogle Fishing Club spends $4000 on bass and the Department of Primary Industries matches it, so $9000 worth of Australian bass is put into Toonumbar Dam.
“Fish are getting distress sores on them,” Mr Reeves said.
The dry spell has alsoclosed the Bells Bay camping ground as dam levels are too low for activities.

Tuesday 24 September 2019

Rescuing flying foxes across Northern NSW & Southern Queensland in the current drought


The Daily Examiner, 23 September 2019, p.10:


As WIRES becomes inundated with sick and starving bats, residents are being urged to give them a helping hand.
A bat starvation event is occurring across Northern NSW and Southern Queensland as WIRES works hard to nurse sick and starving back into health.
WIRES officer Linda Harrison said she had been receiving a large number of flying foxes, particularly juveniles, which were severely undernourished.
The lack of blossoms due to a combination of worsening drought conditions and continued destruction of the natural habitat went some way to explain the event.
“I have had them come in near dead. They are just starving, there is just no food out there for them,” she said.
“A big part of that is the amount of clearing that has been done – 200 years ago this would not have affected them near as much as it what it is now because there would have been more trees out there.”
Ms Harrison said the lack of blossoms meant the bats were starting to look for alternative food sources and were increasingly being found in backyards and trees lower to the ground.
“They are flying in and finding a food source and because they are just so worn out they are staying where they are,” she said.
“People are finding them in their backyards because they don’t have the energy to go anywhere.
“They do have a fairly specific diet but at the moment they are eating anything.”
Ms Harrison said while the bats should be left alone, there were a few things people could do to give them a helping hand, including putting fruit out on string for the bats to have a feed.
“As a rule we don’t usually encourage people to feed them but at the moment they are eating anything and we are doing what we can to keep them alive,” she said.
“Cut up some soft fruit or hang some fruit on bits of rope.”
Despite some rainfall in the last week, Ms Harrison said she was expecting the problems to continue and flying foxes were not the only animals having a hard time.
“I think I am in for a long couple of months, this is going to go on for a while. I think we are in for a long summer.”
“You can see there are more kangaroos coming into people’s yards around South Grafton, they are just coming in for fresh grass.”
WIRES rescue line: 1300094737.

Saturday 21 September 2019

Quote of the Week


"NSW is experiencing one of the most severe droughts on record, with the Central West, Far West and North West regions the worst affected to date. There have been extreme low inflows (the amount of water entering the river and its storages) – the past six months have seen the lowest recorded inflows in history. ..... Without imminent inflows, the lack of water will continue to impact water quality and the riverine environment, while curtailing agricultural production."  [WaterNSW, Regional Drought Information, August 2019]

Wednesday 11 September 2019

Northern NSW likely to remain in drought for the foreseeable future


With the Clarence Valley hinterland in drought and water in the upper reaches of the Clarence River system already low, the following article is not good news for valley communities.

Indeed if the comparison with 2002 holds, then there is a possibility that freshwater entering the tidal pool just below the Lilydale gauge will eventually fall from around the current 286 megalitres daily (less than 10% of historical est. average daily flow) to around 50 megalitres a day.

ABC News, 6 September 2019: 

A rare event that took place 30 kilometres above the South Pole last week is expected to impact upon Australia's rainfall outlook. 

The upper atmosphere above Antarctica warmed by as much as 40 degrees Celsius in the course of a few days — and it is continuing to warm. 

This rare phenomenon, known as sudden stratospheric warming (SSW), could deepen one of the worst droughts in Australian history. 

The Bureau of Meteorology's Harry Hendon warned of dry weather ahead. "We will typically see conditions across most of Australia, but primarily concentrated in the eastern part of Australia, become warmer and drier through spring and into early summer," Dr Hendon said. 

SSW is rare in the southern hemisphere with only one major event ever identified, in 2002 — one of Australia's driest years on record.... 

Sudden stratospheric warming over Antarctica causes westerly winds south of Australia to track further north, a pattern meteorologists refer to as a 'negative SAM'. In spring and summer, this negative SAM pattern brings warmer, drier air into southern Queensland and New South Wales. 

"Unfortunately, these are areas already in drought," said a lead author of the BOM's spring climate outlook, Andrew Watkins. 

Dr Watkins said cooler than normal water in the Indian Ocean, a phenomenon meteorologists call a 'positive IOD', has led to a lack of moisture drifting over the continent. 

"This has certainly been a big factor in why winter has been so dry in virtually all of Australia," he said. 

"On top of that, we have the likelihood of prolonged periods of negative SAM, which also brings drier conditions to New South Wales and southern Queensland. 

"So it's a bit of a double whammy in those locations." Dr Watkins said the impact of the SSW may be felt in Australia through to the end of the year. 

"These sudden stratospheric warming events and the patterns that we see from them can go from September [to] October, sometimes persisting through to January," he said. 

Dr Hendon said he was gratified the Bureau of Meteorology's computer models were able to predict the event. 

"In 2002 we didn't even know about it until after it happened, and we didn't know if we would ever be able to predict it," he said. "It's exciting for us now that we have predictive capability that we didn't have in 2002."

NSW Department of Primary Industries, Combined Drought Indicator:

BACKGROUND

Bureau of Meteorology, 29 August 2019, media release, excerpt: 

FAST FACTS NEW SOUTH WALES 

Spring outlook shows: 

 • Daytime temperatures are likely to be warmer than average across the entire state. Overnight temperatures are also likely to be warmer than average across most of the state, with the highest likelihood in the north. 

• A higher likelihood of drier than average conditions in the coming three months across most of the state. 

Preliminary winter summary shows: 

 • Temperatures in New South Wales have been above average. Daytime temperatures are likely to rank among the warmest 10 winters on record. 

• Rainfall has been below average. 

• Likely to be among Sydney's three warmest winters on record for daytime temperatures, while rainfall was close to average.

Friday 30 August 2019

NSW irrigators still have their heads buried deep in the sand of dry river beds


Ahead of the NSW Local Government Annual Conference to be held from 14-16 October 2019 irrigators' demands are becoming evermore unrealistic in the face of growing surface water shortages due to drought and climate change.

And once again damming and diverting water from the Clarence River system is mentioned.

One has to wonder if the irrigators in the article below realise that, at the point where all the main river tributaries have contributed to the Clarence River flow, water height was only 0.89 metres or slightly less than 3 feet on 28 August 2019, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology which publishes recorded river heights for NSW Northern Rivers.

Water NSW graphs

Further upriver at Tabulum water height was recorded as only -0.04 metres.

The wide full river that these irrigators see on the Internet only runs from Grafton to the sea (approx. 52 kms as the crow flies) and all that way it is saline because the lower river is tidal and that additional undrinkable water volume comes from the ocean.

The Irrigator, Leeton NSW, 27 August 2019, p.5: 

Community leaders agreed to work together to "claw back" water from the NSW government at a Build More Dams meeting recently. 

The meeting attendees agreed to lobby the state government to return "voluntary contributions" of water, which have been siphoned from MIA irrigators since 2002. 

Irrigators had been giving up five per cent of their high security allocations and 15 per cent of their general security allocations, which translates to billions of dollars worth of water - and magnitudes more in today's water prices. Griffith City Council and Leeton Shire Council's mayors also agreed to support the lobbying efforts and urge other councils within the Murray Darling Association to join suit. 

Leeton's mayor Paul Maytom was present at the meeting. 

The committee also agreed to lobby the state government for a feasibility study into the Clarence River diversion scheme that was suggested by engineer David Coffey. 

The scheme would capture Clarence River water in dams and pump it into the Murray Darling system. 

The third and final motion agreed upon by the committee was to take an official stance and throw their support behind a royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. 

The committee will be joining the ranks of the NSW Farmers Griffith branch, which has also recently thrown their support behind a royal commission.

Friday 9 August 2019

Clarence River under stress as it passes through Kyogle region


The Daily Examiner, 5 August 2019, p.13:

“It's pretty bad,” was how one Tabulam resident described the current state of the once mighty Clarence River. 

Residents have stopped pumping water from the river because of blue-green algae caused by low water levels. 

Three of four water trucks pass Mr McMillan’s front door every day, taking water from the river and he said they are likely to be doing this legally but it wouldn’t be helping with the river flow. 

“In 1991 people used to have ski boats and put them in behind the police station and ski upstream,” he said. 

Now that same area is a pasture with no sign of the river, the small flow hidden behind mounds.

Further upstream past the Tabulam Bridge there is an island of sand that was never there before, Mr McMillan said.... 

 “Council is aware that some residents supplement their rainwater tank supply with water sourced from the Clarence River. With the flows in the Clarence so low at present, it is likely that the ability to source this supplementary supply would be compromised.”.....

Tuesday 12 February 2019

New South Wales State of Play February 2019: widespread drought


The bad news just never ends.

All of New South Wales is drought affected to varying degrees in February 2019, incliuding the Northern Rivers region.

https://edis.dpi.nsw.gov.au/


Tuesday 28 August 2018

Australia's water evaporation levels are running at record rates in 2018


The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 2018:

Australia's evaporation levels are running at record rates, especially across eastern states, increasing the misery for drought-hit farmers and raising bushfire risks as the mercury starts to climb.

While rainfall deficiencies have drawn much attention, stronger-than-usual winds, abnormally sunny days and low humidity have combined to push up evaporation levels, Bureau of Meteorology data shows.

Across the nation, evaporation last month averaged 145.21 millimetres, well above the 128.6 mm typical for July, and the most on record for data going back to 1975, said Karl Braganza, head of climate monitoring at the bureau.

The national tally beat the previous record in 2002. On a regional level, the evaporation rate was the highest on record for Victoria, and also smashed previous records for eastern Australia as a whole.

July pan evaporation for Eastern Australia

1975-2018



If you live in a NSW rural/regional area or an outer metropolitan suburb with thick tree cover.....


Now is the time to make or update your bushfire survival plan.

Because the fires have come early this year and intermittant rainfall is unlikely to ease the threat for long.


http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/rainfall/

Crikey.com.au, 16 August 2018:

NSW has declared its earliest total fire ban on record, with hundreds of South Coast residents forced to flee their homes amidst a massive blaze.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that fire crews battled at least 83 fires across the state, following stronger-than-expected winds, creating fire bans that beat the previous record by two weeks. Compounding problems was the fact that, according to The Daily Telegraph ($), two huge water bombers were not in action because they had not yet arrived from the US ahead of Australia’s summer season.


Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales

Fire Weather Warning for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas.

Issued at 10:37 am EST on Wednesday 15 August 2018.

Weather Situation
Warm, dry and windy conditions over southeast NSW today ahead of a cold front,
which will pass to the south of the state overnight.

For the rest of Wednesday 15 August:

Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven

The NSW Rural Fire Service advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.

The Rural Fire Service advises that if you are in an area of Severe Fire Danger:
- If you plan to leave finalise your options and leave early on the day
- Only stay if your home is well prepared and you can actively defend it
- Prepare for the emotional, mental and physical impact of defending your
property - if in doubt, leave.
For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.

No further warnings will be issued for this event, but the situation will
continue to be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.

For up-to-date information for your local area see NSW Rural Fire Service’s  Fire Danger Ratings and Total Fire Bans and Fires Near Me.


Friday 20 July 2018

Too warm, too dry as Winter draws closer to Spring in Australia 2018



Warmer days and nights favoured for August–October

August to October days and nights are likely to be warmer than average for most of the country, with high chances (greater than 80%) in eastern Victoria and NSW, and southern Tasmania.

Days and nights in August are likely to be warmer than average for most of Australia, with high chances (greater than 80%) of warmer days in the southeast.

Historical accuracy for August–October maximum temperatures is moderate for eastern and northern parts of Australia, as well as southern WA. Elsewhere, accuracy is low to very low. Historical accuracy for minimum temperatures is moderate for the northern half of Australia, SA, and Tasmania, but low to very low elsewhere.

Temperature - The chance of above median maximum temperature for August to October



Drier than average August–October likely in northeast and southeast mainland
August to October is likely to be drier than average in Victoria, NSW, southeast SA and northeast Queensland

The August outlook shows most of Victoria, NSW and Queensland are likely to be drier than average.

Historical outlook accuracy for August to October is moderate over most of the country, except for interior WA, where accuracy is low to very low.

Rainfall - Totals that have a 75% chance of occurring for August to October

Drought

June rainfall was below average for most of Australia, and very much below average for parts of the east coast

The start of the southern wet season has been drier than average

Rainfall deficiencies persist in both the east and west of the country, increasing in the east at the 6- and 15-month timescales, and along the west coast at the 15-month timescale

Lower-layer soil moisture was below average for June across most of New South Wales, the southern half of Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory, the Kimberley and the south of Western Australia

Soil Moisture

Soil moisture in the lower layer (from 10 cm to 100 cm deep) for June decreased over eastern Australia, and increased over parts of northwest Western Australia following above average rainfall for June.

Lower-layer soil moisture was below average for the Kimberley and southern Western Australia away from the west coast, most of South Australia and the Northern Territory, New South Wales and eastern Victoria, southern and eastern Queensland south of a line between Birdsville and Townsville, and along the coastal fringe of eastern Cape York Peninsula.

Map of lower level soil moisture for the previous month

NSW Dept. of Primary Industries, NSW State Seasonal Update - June 2018. Click on map to enlarge:



Tweed, Richmond, Kyogle, Lismore, Byron Bay, Ballina, Clarence Valley local government areas, as at 15 July 2018 according to Combined Drought Indicator:


The entire Northern Rivers region is considered drought affected. 

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Forecasting a dangerous present and devastating future for Australia



“Background warming associated with anthropogenic climate change has seen Australian annual mean temperature increase by approximately 1.1 °C since 1910. Most of this warming has occurred since 1950.” [Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Annual Climate Statement 2017]

Bloomberg, 10 January 2018:

The road-melting heatwave that made Sydney the hottest place on Earth at the weekend may just be a taste of things to come. 

Temperatures in Australia are set to rise until around 2050 due to greenhouse gas emissions already in the atmosphere, according to the country’s weather bureau

“Australia is one country where you really can see the signal of global warming,” Karl Braganza, the Bureau of Meteorology’s head of climate monitoring, told reporters on a call. “We’ve locked the degree of warming in until mid-century and that means it’s likely that one of the next strong El Nino events in the coming decade or two will set a new record.”

Western Sydney touched 47.3 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday and 2017 was Australia’s third-hottest year on record. Heat and drought risk devastating crops in Australia, the world’s third-largest exporter of cotton where farm production is forecast to be worth A$59 billion ($46 billion) this financial year.

The Heat is On
Australia has had just one cooler-than-average year since 2005
Since 2005, Australia has notched up seven of its 10 warmest years, the weather bureau said in its annual climate statement.

More heatwaves could stress a power grid that’s struggled to cope with demand as people crank up air-conditioning during the scorching summer months.

Australian Bureau of Meteorology Annual Climate Statement 2017, issued January 2018.

Visible impacts in 2018.................

The Guardian, 9 January 2018:

More than 400 animals have died in one colony alone as temperatures soar above 47C, causing exhaustion and dehydration

Mounds of dead flying foxes in Campbelltown suburb of Sydney, Australia. Photograph: Facebook/Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown