More rain to come for cricket season: La Nina
AFTER seven weeks of sunshine the Bureau of Meteorology has warned a La Nina event is set to drench the Gold Coast summer, sparking fears of another rain-impacted cricket season.
Nearly all matches scheduled for the weekend of November 27/28 have been cancelled after more than 150mm of rain fell between Tuesday and Friday.
News of the La Nina event has been met with disappointment from the region’s cricketers, according to Surfers Paradise coach Scott Day.
“Any time you sign up to play cricket you just want to play,” Day said.
“Any rain like that is frustrating more than anything but that’s the thing, you can’t do anything about it.”
Last year’s La Nina event was to blame for one of the wettest seasons on record in 2020/21.
The season saw 28 matches washed out, including both semi-finals, with even more reduced to shortened fixtures.
The weather phenomenon occurs when strong winds push warm water west across the Pacific Ocean, cooling temperatures and increasing rainfall.
The last “significant” La
Nina event saw the summers of 2009/2010 and 2011/2012 experience high rainfall.
The milder La Nina event of 2020/2021 saw 13.5 per cent of regular season matches washed out.
Mudgeeraba-nerang topped the table with 92 points that season after losing three matches to the rain, the fewest of any club.
The Bushmen have faired the best in wet seasons among Gold Coast sides recently.
During the last three La Nina affected seasons Mudgeeraba finished in the top two on the Kookaburra Cup leaderboard, winning two grand finals.