Australia Day weather, and Portuguese drought by Sarah Wilmshurst
Today, the 26th January, is Australia Day, which marks the anniversary of the arrival of the first fleet of settlers from Britain who sailed into Sydney Harbour back in 1788. The weather has been causing problems for some of the celebratory events especially in the northeast.
Traditionally, thousands of people would head to the coast of Queensland, but this year they were warned to stay away as strong winds brought in large swells. Some Gold Coast events were cancelled because of rain, and there has been widespread flooding in the north of the state in the past few days.
Further south in Melbourne, the heat has been making the news. Not only a hot one for the holiday, but too hot for the tennis players at the Australian Open. Yesterday afternoon play was suspended for a time as the temperature soared to 35.8 Celsius, causing players to suffer from heat stress. The heat is expected to continue throughout the rest of the week, although by Saturday a change to a southerly wind direction will bring in much cooler weather with a forecast high of a much more comfortable 23 Celsius.
Back into our hemisphere and it looks like Portugal has had one of the driest Januarys on record - in some regions the driest January for 103 years. Although we are not yet at the end of the month, no further rain is expected under the persistent area of high pressure. No rain has fallen at all this month in Lisbon or Evora. This follows a very dry end to last year, with the lowest rainfall between September and December since 1990. Reservoirs in southern Portugal's Algarve are at 15% capacity.
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