Stormy weather hits Western Australia by Steph Ball
Over the weekend, two truckers battled against raging flood waters in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Stormy weather has been affecting Western Australia over the last week. In Perth there were numerous calls to the emergency services at the weekend as a cold front moved through bringing heavy rain and strong winds. Many of the calls were from the Rockingham area, southern Perth, hit only last Monday by a tornado.
The recent rain, however, will have done little to address the worsening drought across the country, said to be the worst in over a century. The drought is said to be drying up Australia’s Outback. It has also forced the closure of the world’s largest cattle farm, Anna Creek. The farm which extends across an area larger than Wales has seen the grazing land depleted.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has recently declared May 2008 the driest on record. Low rainfall over the autumn, in fact over the last 12 months, has seen the extent of severe drought extending. Northeastern parts of New South Wales and southern areas of Queensland are amongst the exception though, having benefited from some decent rainfall, all due to the 2007/ 2008 La Niña.
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