Antinuclear

Australia’s floods are the result of warmer seas

“Sea surface temperatures across the north and northwest had been the “highest on record by some margin, which is favourable for heavy rainfall, since August-September”….The current La Nina is forecast to last into autumn.

Warm seas fuelling deluges across nation  Brendan O’Keefe  The Australian *January 15, 2011 RECORD warm seas across the Top End and off the northwest coast of Western Australian have fuelled this week’s deluge, experts say.

National Climate Centre climate monitoring manager Karl Braganza said easterly trade winds had piled up warm equatorial water around the north coast.”Warm local ocean temperatures feed this rainfall,” Dr Braganza said.The effect has been felt thousands of kilometres from the balmy seas.

“Tasmania yesterday broke daily rainfall records by quite some margin,” Dr Braganza said.”A northwest cloud band system brought tropical moisture down over the southern states.”Sea surface temperatures across the north and northwest had been the “highest on record by some margin, which is favourable for heavy rainfall, since August-September”, he said.

Heavy rainfall prior to the start of the monsoon meant that when the monsoon did arrive, it fell on already saturated ground. CSIRO buoys off Queensland and Western Australia recorded sea surface temperatures 5C above average between January 3 and last Thursday.

CSIRO oceanographer David Griffin said the La Nina was pushing up sea temperatures.”There is the mother of all warm core eddies off Sydney,” he said. The sea temperature anomaly off Western Australia was “off the scale”, he added. Rainfall of up to 100mm was forecast for the region next week.

In Victoria yesterday, warnings for major floods were current for the Avoca, Wimmera, Lerderderg and Campaspe rivers. There were warnings of minor or moderate flooding in 13 other catchments.The Campaspe River at north central Barnadown had risen from 2m late on Thursday to nearly 7m after days of heavy rain in the upper catchment, including 135mm at Bendigo since Tuesday.Off Queensland, Tropical Cyclone Zelia, expected to be a category two storm, was 750km east of Cooktown and heading southeast.The current La Nina is forecast to last into autumn.

Warm seas fuelling deluges across nation | The Australian

January 14, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming | climate change - global warming