Australia warned to brace itself for active cyclone season by Steph Ball
The UK-based Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) consortium of weather experts, warned on Friday that Australia should brace itself for its worst tropical cyclone season since 1998-1999.
The season which started at the beginning of November, runs until the end of April 2008. TSR are forecasting that up to 13 tropical storms will develop, of which seven will become severe with up to five or six cyclones going on to hit the Australian mainland. This would make it a more active season with the increase in activity expected to be generated by the current La Niņa phenomenon.
La Niņa (translated as the Spanish girl), is the opposite of the El Niņo effect and influences the weather in a different way. It results in a cooling of the sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific and this year is expected to be at its coldest since 1999. This contributes towards a more active tropical cyclone season.
The Australian bureau of Meteorology has said that the forecast from TSR should be taken seriously. Queensland insurers have already paid out more money for storm damage this financial year than the whole of last year, and the season has only just begun. The state has been hit by numerous storms over recent months, bringing floods and with high winds tearing off roof tops and toppling trees.
In contrast southeast Australia is still reeling from an ongoing drought. The Murray Darling Basin has just experienced its driest 6-year period on record, and while the TSR forecast is promising, it is thought that higher-than-average rainfall would be needed over many years to address the drought.
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