Wet, warm start to winter for Australia

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest seasonal forecast is predicting the start of winter to be wet and warm for large swathes of Australia.

Wetter-than-average conditions are expected across the southeast between next month and July, with daytime temperatures forecast to be warmer than usual.

The bureau’s latest three monthly climate outlook comes after a series of sweltering days across NSW, Victoria and South Australia where April temperatures soared to record highs.

Senior climatologist Lynette Bettio said the forecast reflected warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures around New Zealand and in the Tasman sea.

‘‘This may cause lower pressures over eastern Australia with a swing towards above average rainfall in the far southeast,’’ she said on Thursday.

‘‘Northern Australia is also likely to receive above average rainfall, however we are coming into the dry season across the north so we don’t need large rainfall totals to exceed the median.

‘‘Days and nights are forecast to be warmer than average across the south and cooler than average across parts of northern Australia, especially in Queensland.’’ — AAP

AAP story from The Shepparton News - “Wet, warm start to winter for Australia."

Dam levels across NSW continue to hold despite record dry winter

Despite a record dry winter and extremely warm daytime temperatures in New South Wales over the last four months, the state's dams are still relatively full.

One of the world's largest, Hume Dam is
still nearly full despite a record dry winter.

"It is counterintuitive, I know, but despite the long dry winter with almost four months without decent rainfall the dam storages are still very high," said Tony Webber, a spokesman for Water NSW.

"On-farm storages are being drawn down, but the big state-run dams are still holding between 80 and 90 per cent.

"From the point where dams are full, even if we have zero inflow, we still have between two and three years of water stored in our state dams.

Of the big dams, Hume Dam near Albury — one of the biggest in the world — is at 91 per cent, Wyangala is at 85 per cent, Blowering Dam is at 79 per cent, Burrendong is at 77 per cent and irrigation dam Burrinjuck at 61 per cent.

Read the ABC News story by Michael Condon - “Dam levels across NSW continue to hold despite record dry winter.”

Australia’s record-breaking winter warmth linked to climate change

On the first day of spring, it’s time to take stock of the winter that was. It may have felt cold, but Australia’s winter had the highest average daytime temperatures on record. It was also the driest in 15 years.

This winter had some extreme low and high temperatures. 

Back at the start of winter the Bureau of Meteorology forecast a warm, dry season. That proved accurate, as winter has turned out both warmer and drier than average.

While we haven’t seen anything close to the weather extremes experienced in other parts of the world, including devastating rainfalls in Niger, the southern US and the Indian subcontinent all in the past week, we have seen a few interesting weather extremes over the past few months across Australia.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a Climate Extremes Research Fellow from the University of Melbourne, Andrew King -  “Australia’s record-breaking winter warmth linked to climate change.”