A startling map has revealed rainfall deficiency has developed across large swathes of Australia indicating the country is headed straight for drought.
Bureau of Meteorology’s drought October report revealed September rains were 70.8 per cent below the 1961–1990 average and that it was the driest September for 123 years.
The BoM’s rainfall totals also showed that the east coast of Victoria and New South Wales and the Gasgoyne and Eucla districts in Western Australia meet the conditions for being declared in drought.
The BoM told Daily Mail Australia Melbourne and Sydney are set to heat up again in coming days, with the hottest days of the week coming on Thursday in both capitals.
As another round of heatwaves is set to batter the country, recent rainfall data confirms what many people already knew: large parts of the country are already in drought
While the repeated periods of warm weather are welcome for many Australians and tourists keen to get tot he beach, a drought is dire news for the economy
The BoM’s rainfall totals also showed that the east coast of Victoria and New South Wales and the Gasgoyne and Eucla districts in Western Australia meet the conditions for being declared in drought
Sydney is forecast to be 29C on Thursday while Melbourne will reach 26C. That is seven degrees above average for both cities.
From next Friday a cool change will bring the mercury back down.
The hot weather is moving from the west, where it is already baking hot. On Sunday Hayden in southwest WA was 38C, almost 14C above average.
‘The heat is already building through southwest WA at the moment with temperatures 14C to 16C above average for this time of year,’ said Sarah Scully, senior forecaster with the BoM.
Rainfall figures from the BoM’s new drought report show large parts of the country meet the conditions to be in ‘meteorological drought’ – which is when rainfall drops well below average.
Several parts of the country have had less rain than they’ve seen for over 120 years.
‘Areas of ‘lowest on record’ May to September rainfall have developed in Gasgoyne and Eucla districts in Western Australia, and along parts of the east coast of Victoria and New South Wales,’ the BoM said.
For the five months since May 2023 many more areas experienced rainfall so low they were either been in the lowest 5 or 10 per cent of all record totals since 1900.
Twelve fire and emergency services organisations, including the weather office, have issued a high-level warning to ‘prepare now’ for the bushfire season
The last time Australia suffered a major drought, from 2017-19 the cost to the nation was an estimated $63billion
Those areas included: the southern-west coast and in the Eucla district of WA, along the west coast in South Australia, central-east coast of Tasmania, south-central and eastern Victoria, eastern NSW, inland northern NSW.
Even the recent heavy rainfall and flooding that has truck Victoria’s alpine areas and the NSW south coast will do little to dent the overall drought picture.
That is because once drought sets in it takes months to ease, given how bone dry soils become.
South-east Queensland, especially in Wide Bay and Burnett and Maranoa and Warrego districts were also included.
Rainfall predictions for summer only cement the fact that drought is here to stay for now.
Below median rainfall is likely to very likely (60 per cent to greater than 80 per cent chance) for November 2023 to January 2024 for ‘for much of western, northern and southern Australia’.
Small areas of northern NSW may have increased rains.
While the repeated periods of warm weather are welcome for many Australians and tourists keen to get tot he beach, they are dire news for the economy.
The last time Australia suffered a major drought, from 2017-19 the cost to the nation was an estimated $63billion.
While bushfires often claim the headlines, the proportion of that figure due to fires was an estimated $10billion.
An estimated $53billion was due to the diminished earning capacity of farms.
NSW and Queensland bore the brunt of the 2017-19 drought.
The reason the BoM hasn’t declared a drought is that it isn’t a function of the agency; it is the job of state governments.
That is understood to be because a declaration of drought comes with a set of actions, such as water restrictions.
Dam storage levels remain low in some parts of southern and central Queensland, south-eastern parts of NSW, central Tasmania, and urban areas of Perth
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