Antinuclear

In Southern Australia, winters are becoming drier

Australia’s southern winters are drying out. Here’s why, ABC 20 Sept 17 ,By Ben Deacon and Kate Doyle Winter rains are in decline across southern Australia, and while it is too early to say beyond doubt it is due to climate change, scientists say it is not just about climate variability.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, June was the driest on record for large parts of southern Australia, and the winter as a whole across Australia was the ninth driest on record.

“It’s actually quite unusual for us to get such a widespread dry through the winter without having an El Nino,” Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Blair Trewin said.

El Nino often brings dry conditions to Australia, but this year it is in neutral.

“It’s almost more about what hasn’t been happening,” Dr Trewin said.

Normally in winter, storms come up from the southern Indian Ocean and clip the bottom of Western Australia, delivering rain to the south of the country.

But until mid-July, the storms largely missed the continent………. Rainfall continues to decline in southern Australia. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, May to July rainfall has reduced by about 19 per cent since 1970 in the south-west of Australia.
There has been a decline of about 11 per cent since the mid-1990s in the April–October growing season rainfall in the continental south-east.

CSIRO Agriculture and Food senior principal research scientist Zvi Hochman said winter rain in Australia’s southern wheatbelt had declined by a whopping 28 per cent since 1990.

“I was surprised as anyone to find the extent to which that trend, across the 50 weather stations, is there,” Dr Hochman said.

“Yes, it varies geographically, but it is still a very strong trend……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-20/winter-getting-drier-in-southern-australia-heres-why/8956754

September 21, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming