Drought on the way out

5 Mar 2010, 11:17 am   -   Source: AAP
0 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
0
The Bureau of Meteorology's latest drought statement, issued yesterday, found that for the 11 months to the end of February, most of the country escaped rainfall deficiencies. (AAP)

The Bureau of Meteorology's latest drought statement, issued yesterday, found that for the 11 months to the end of February, most of the country escaped rainfall deficiencies. (AAP)

The horror 13-year drought is on the way out, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

RELATED

The horror 13-year drought is on the way out, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Heavy summer rains across the east of the country have crowned the last year with a title that's become rare: rainfall was not below average.

The current drought started back in 1997.

It has been tough for farmers, and forced parched cities to plan for desalination plants and the recycling of wastewater.

The Bureau of Meteorology's latest drought statement, issued yesterday, found that for the 11 months to the end of February, most of the country escaped rainfall deficiencies.

Some areas had very much above average rainfall.

"Widespread above-average rainfall across eastern Australia during summer 2009-2010, especially in February, has eased short-term deficiencies across most of eastern Australia," the statement said.

Parts of Western Australia were the exception, posting a very dry year. The wet year has not ended the drought.

The Bureau's statement noted that very long-term rainfall deficiencies persist across parts of southern and eastern Australia.

Much of southeast Australia has had below-average rainfall since 1997, while the Murray-Darling food bowl has been dry since 2002.

But the drought has eased in key regions, and the rainy reprieve has been welcomed by farmers while it boosted cities' dams.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.