Rain fame dries up
Families looking for relief from the heat wherever they can
THE Far North’s reputation as the wettest spot in the country could be at risk after yet another year of dismally low rainfall.
At 9am yesterday Cairns Airport had recorded just 1394mm for 2016 compared to an annual average of 2007.6mm.
It’s the fourth year in a row the city has been drier than normal, and the driest since 2013, when just 1269mm fell. The worst year, in 2002 when just 721mm fell, was also relatively recent in the airport weather station’s 70 years of operation.
Cairns recorded less rainfall than the southern capitals of Melbourne and Adelaide in December. Melbourne Airport received 63mm on Thursday this week alone. Cairns has received just 56.6mm all month.
Parts of the Central Queensland coast have also been wetter than Cairns,with Mackay yesterday sitting on 1598.6mm for the year.
University of Southern Queensland International Centre for Applied Climate Science director Roger Stone said the results weren’t surprising, but reprieve was likely now on the way.
“We’ve had a couple of years of El Nino patterns, and El Nino affects that area very easily,” he said.
“This particular year we had a neutral pattern, but fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean one way or the other with the Southern Oscillation Index moving up and down tends to give you below-average rainfall for October to December, which has happened.
“For the January to March period on our system, it comes up better, starting next week, so there’s some reasonable rain on the horizon.”
Dr Stone said while drier conditions were not yet becoming the norm, initial signs for next summer weren’t good.
“This slightly higher rainfall may only last between January to March, but we have to wait and see beyond that,” he said.
“It’s looking a bit worrying for summer next year at this stage, but it’s too early to say.”