Rain - as always, is welcome in moderation but not in torrents. by Rob McElwee
Rain - as always, welcome in moderation but not in torrents.
It’s no great surprise that Australia is prone to drought given that is largely a desert continent. The lucky presence of pressurised underground water reserves, a legacy of the ice age, has allowed farming where otherwise it wouldn’t be possible.
But you can’t irrigate everywhere and rain is usually the water supply for grazing land. There’s the problem. The rain has been sparse over the grazing plains of Queensland in particular with the drought year 2002-03 still leaving its mark.
So a little rain is often taken as a sign of change in the weather. Well, it’s just happened; Last night 45mm fell in Longreach, two thirds of that in nearby settlements. The responsible depression off the coast will intensify but withdraw the rain to the coast whilst winds increase south of Brisbane.
Too much rain is the common spring problem in southern China. Man-made deforestation and river diversion don’t help but flooding is expected. Clearly this can be advantageous as paddy fields need to be wet.
Spring rain is sometimes accompanied by fatal thunderstorms. This year particularly so. In Guangdong province last night, more than 2,000 reservoirs were in danger of flooding and three major tributaries of the Pearl River were also at risk of overflowing. The water levels of the Xijiang, Beijiang and Hanjiang rivers, three major tributaries of the Pearl River, have all reached warning levels, threatening the cities along the river banks.
Storms accompanied by lightning have also recently hit the provincial capital Guangzhou. In the city, many primary schools were closed because of the storms on Monday. Major streets in the downtown areas were flooded by water more than 1 metre high.
There is more to come, probably not immediately but before spring is out.
|
|
