Antinuclear

Mon 10 Feb 2020 ”Unprecedented” is the word that keeps being tied to the apocalyptic weather Australia has faced over the past few months.

Bushfires have always been a reality in Australia, but never recorded on this scale with such widespread damage. It’s estimated that more than 60,000 sq km have been scorched in New South Wales and Victoria alone. Days of smoke have shrouded Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. And after the fires, flooding at the weekend in NSW and parts of Queensland left thousands without power and dozens of schools closed on Monday.

While the country is still grappling with the economic reality and human devastation caused by the fires, it’s easy to think the worst of this disaster is over. But unfortunately other extreme weather may yet occur this summer and these will also require safety preparations and rapid responses.

Continental floods

Last year was the driest and hottest year on record in Australia. Some parts of the country have had several years of drought in a row. But all droughts end eventually. At the weekend devastating storms swept through eastern NSW, causing flooding, power outages and commuter chaos. The Bureau of Meteorology says 391.6mm of rain fell over Sydney in the past four days, the most since 414.2mm fell from 2 to 5 February 1990.

Historically Australian continental-scale droughts are often broken by widespread heavy rain, leading to an increased risk of flooding, including potentially lethal flash floods. The flood risk from the heavy rains is exacerbated by the bare soil and lack of vegetation caused by the drought and by bushfires that destroy forest and grassland. When a decade-long drought ended in 2009, what followed were two extremely wet years with serious flooding. Flooding also brings the risk that ash might contaminate water supplies. The heavy rain falling on bare soil can also lead to serious erosion…….

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/10/fires-and-floods-australia-already-seesaws-between-climate-extremes-and-theres-more-to-come