nomadpete Posted March 5 Posted March 5 11 hours ago, kgwilson said: Was he there with Paul and Mary as well? I was! 1
onetrack Posted March 9 Posted March 9 (edited) Bruce - As regards what, exactly? Are you expecting big inflows into the Murray-Darling basin from this ex-tropical cyclone Alfred producing heavy rain in SE Qld? The majority of the heavy rainfall appears to be on the East side of the Great Dividing Range in SE Qld, so that water is heading to the Pacific Ocean. The rainfall on the Western slopes of the GDR appears to be too light to produce any major inflows to the Murray-Darling system. http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/index.shtml?ref=hdr Edited March 9 by onetrack 1
spacesailor Posted March 9 Posted March 9 My eldest has left ' South West Rocks ' as the ' upstream ' floodgates have been opened. They won't get flooded , but isolated ' , by a low hight bridge being closed to all traffic. They just dropped in to tell us , while on their way to Victoria. spacesailor
old man emu Posted March 9 Posted March 9 Looks like I'm going to keep pretty dry. Them pesky rain clouds are avoiding my place. Wouldn't like the drought to end. 1
facthunter Posted March 9 Posted March 9 You live in a place where you can't reliably get rain from any direction. Nev 1
old man emu Posted March 9 Posted March 9 45 minutes ago, facthunter said: You live in a place where you can't reliably get rain from any direction. Nev Yeah. It seems to be the border between sub-tropical and temperate weather systems. It has been hot, dry and windy here all summer. The grass in the paddocks is dead. I wondering if there is enough soil moisture for a winter crop to be sown. 1
onetrack Posted March 9 Posted March 9 OME, your rainfall region is subject to wide seasonal variations, but the current climatic trend for your region is also inclining towards drought. You could be worse off, spare a thought for the rural South Australians, a lot have even run out of drinking water. The S.A. farmers have just endured the worst cropping season in 80 years, with inadequate rain through last Winter, accompanied by savage frosts. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/02/they-cant-drink-water-they-cant-flush-the-toilet-low-rainfall-in-the-adelaide-hills-has-left-thousands-on-the-brink
pmccarthy Posted March 9 Author Posted March 9 It’s raining! Just a few points so far, but it sounds great. 2
old man emu Posted March 9 Posted March 9 31 minutes ago, pmccarthy said: It’s raining! Just a few points so far, but it sounds great. Where? 1
nomadpete Posted March 15 Posted March 15 Youse mainlanders got no idea how tough this hot weather can be.... I just got a 'Hot Weather Warning' from the fire brigade. It maxed out at 23 degrees today! Phew! Tomorrow is forecast to hit 17 degrees! Followed by a 6 degree night..... we'll be throwing off the doona in this heatwave! And RAIN! All day tomorrow.... maybe 3mm of it! 1
old man emu Posted March 15 Posted March 15 36C 18% humidity. Probability of rain: Nunn & Buckley's. I heard that the summer of 2025 in New South Wales was the driest since 1980, with area-averaged rainfall 21% below the 1961-1990 average at 132.7 mm. Rain that did fall on the State did not get west of the Great Dividing Range. 1
spacesailor Posted March 15 Posted March 15 I just keep a few thousand's lts of rain water just I casa it doesn't rain . taste's just like spring water . Now " how to change that ' H2O ' to ' H ' . Then I could put bags of it in my pockets & not have to diet . LoL spacesailor
nomadpete Posted March 15 Posted March 15 1 minute ago, spacesailor said: I just keep a few thousand's lts of rain water just I casa it doesn't rain . taste's just like spring water . Now " how to change that ' H2O ' to ' H ' . Then I could put bags of it in my pockets & not have to diet . LoL spacesailor I offer to lighten the burden of your wallet Spacey..... If that helps. 1
onetrack Posted March 15 Posted March 15 We had a drought between Oct 2023 and May 2024, with virtually zero rain, only a few mm's in that period. Then we had a short but near-average Winter rainfall, with more rain falling in the Northern and Eastern Wheatbelt and adjoining Pastoral areas further North, way above average. The cropping season for W.A. 2024-25 was the 3rd largest on record, despite the season looking dismal at the start. We produced over 20M tonnes of grains, and that makes 4 of the last 5 years for W.A. farmers, as bumper cropping years. But the rain petered out again in early Oct 2024, and we've endured the hottest December, January and February, since the early 1960's. In the Wheatbelt, the December 2024 average temperatures were 3° above average, 4° above average in January, and 1.5° above average in February. We had a big thunderstorm roll in from the North-West on Thursday (13th Mar.) that gave us 13mm in the city, 20mm at Perth Airport and around 25-30mm over many other areas of the State, including the Wheatbelt. Albany and a small area North and NW of Albany, collected a massive downpour as the thunderstorm passed over it, heading South - Albany recorded 126mm for the day, an all-time record rainfall for one day. The rain has refreshed everything, and it definitely feels like Autumn now, with some cool nights. I fully expect we'll have an above-average Winter rainfall, this normally happens after Qld has had huge Summer rains, we get heavy Winter rains as a follow-on. An old farmer told me about this pattern in the mid-1960's, and he'd followed weather patterns for 50 years before I spoke to him. 1974 was when Brisbane had its massive floods and the 1974 Winter here in W.A. was the wettest for decades, it was a wipeout, there were flooded paddocks for weeks. 1
facthunter Posted March 15 Posted March 15 I'm selling Pint bottles of Dehydrated water if anyone's interested. Nev 1 1
old man emu Posted March 15 Posted March 15 34 minutes ago, facthunter said: I'm selling Pint bottles of Dehydrated water if anyone's interested. Nev Can I return the empty bottles and get ten cents? I'm an ardent recycler. 1
facthunter Posted March 15 Posted March 15 Ardents are not recyclable and to get the money back on the bottle you must first pay the deposit. Nev 1 1
old man emu Posted March 15 Posted March 15 On a more serious note, we talk about how much rain falls on our blocks, but we never talk about the other water factor that really stifles plant growth - evaporation. Just think about the weather at your place today. It's hot. Humidity is low. The Sun is belting down through cloudless skies, and there's a bit of a breeze. Excellent weather for the missus to get the washing dry, but think of the amount of water being drawn out of the ground. The rate of evaporation depends on factors such as cloudiness, air temperature and wind speed. The evapotranspiration rate is the amount of water which evaporates from an open pan called a Class A evaporation pan. A standard pan is 121 centimeters in diameter and 24 centimeters deep. It is set on a wooden platform close to the ground as shown below. Measurements are made by the addition or subtraction of a known amount of water, which then tells us how much water has evaporated from the pan. Here is a link to the evapotranspiration data for March 2025 at an agricultural research station abut 65 km from my place. http://www.bom.gov.au/watl/eto/tables/nsw/trangie_research_station/trangie_research_station.shtml The data shows that there was only 1.8 mm of rain, but 78.9 mm of evaporation. The amount of evaporation is calculated using this formula where: Emass = Evaporation rate (mm day−1) m = Slope of the saturation vapor pressure curve (kPa K−1) Rn = Net irradiance (MJ m−2 day−1) γ = psychrometric constant = 0.0016286∗PkPaλv (kPa K−1) U2 = wind speed (m s−1) δe = vapor pressure deficit (kPa) λv = latent heat of vaporization (MJ kg−1) And no. You can't borrow my calculator. 1
facthunter Posted March 15 Posted March 15 IF it HOT. lots of sunshine, LOW humidity and Windy it will evaporate moisture fast. . Nev
nomadpete Posted March 15 Posted March 15 1 hour ago, facthunter said: IF it HOT. lots of sunshine, LOW humidity and Windy it will evaporate moisture fast. . Nev That's good enough for me.
old man emu Posted March 15 Posted March 15 1 hour ago, facthunter said: IF it HOT. lots of sunshine, LOW humidity and Windy it will evaporate moisture fast. . Nev The point I wanted to make is that evapotranspiration is never considered when we talk about the weather. Evapotranspiration happens day in, day out, 365.25 days per year and 366 day every fourth. We don't get rain with that frequency. Rain comes sporadically, and the majority of it runs away, and is of no use in sustaining plant populations. Just talking about air temperature rise ignores the effects of those rises on both soil moisture and atmospheric moisture.
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