SES ready as La Nina returns
THE Darling Downs, like much of Queensland, is in line for a wet summer with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a La Nina effect developing in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans.
How strong the La Nina is will determine the ferocity of the storms and cyclones that will batter Queensland.
But our SES volunteers are leaving nothing to chance.
Southwest Region Area Control Ian Pipps recently returned from a state meeting where high-ranking SES officials mapped a strategy to rapidly deploy teams of volunteers to storm hot spots.
“We are going over that plan and making sure all the local groups know what to do,” he said.
“We’ll have our pre-storm season briefing with all our area controllers in the next month.”
“We are well resourced, we have plenty of tarps and ropes stockpiled and we are ready for a major event.”
This season will be significantly different from the past decade of summers, with the focus shifting from bushfires to storms, cyclones and floods.
Mr Pipps was concerned residents may have become too relaxed and he urged them to get tidy up the gardens, clean out house gutters and lop overhanging branches.
“We could see quite a bit of damage to property if people do not do that house maintenance now,” he said.
Recent observations and model forecasts show the central tropical Pacific Ocean is now 0.8°C cooler than normal, and that has resulted in changes to Trade Winds and pressure patterns.
BOM climate models suggest these patterns will continue until the end of 2020.
“La Niña typically results in above-average spring rainfall for Australia, particularly across eastern, central and northern regions,” a BOM spokesman said.
The last La Niña event occurred from 2010-2012 and resulted in one of Australia’s wettest two-year periods on record with widespread flooding in Queensland associated with those record rainfalls.
“It is likely this year will not see the same intensity as the 2010-11 La Niña event, but is likely to be moderate,” the spokesman said.