Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Wet Wet Wet

It seems that our wet and flooding summer has turned into a wet and flooding autumn.

Much of Oz was cursed by floods through the summer as we ended a long period of drought. The wet continues.

Yesterday we had our wettest April day in 35 years. Yet strangely even with all this water around, Melbourne still arguably has a water shortage.

Oz has a climate that typically swings from periods of wet to periods of dry. A few pictures to illustrate.

About 18 months ago we had a picnic at one of Melbourne’s medium sized water storages Sugarloaf Reservoir and I snapped these piccies.

As you can see the water was low.In fact because of over a decade of drought the reservoir (and Melbourne’s overall water supply) was down to under 30% of capacity. Had rainfall continued at that rate we would have run out of water in another two years. This former island went back to being a hill.Regional Oz towns have run out of water in the past, in fact one of the towns we lived in some years ago got so low (below 5% capacity) that they actually went to water rationing, even basics like bathing were limited. Not fun.

Melbourne like most of Oz has huge storage capacity because of this kind of risk.

Things are a bit different now. With all the wet Sugarloaf has changed, these piccies taken a couple of weeks ago show how much water has flowed in with our flood weather.The island is an island again.Melbourne Water has taken advantage of flooding in the Yarra Valley and pumped water to Sugarloaf reservoir which is now at 87% capacity.Yet despite this Melbourne’s water supply is still only at 53% capacity.

So poor sun loving Al has to say bring on the rain :-(

7 comments:

Sage Ravenwood said...

Beautiful pictures and interesting history. Sounds like the land needed to slake her thirst. (Hugs)Indigo

February Grace said...

I love this blog. Just sayin'. :~)

~bru

Anonymous said...

It's scary when the water gets low like that. Pretty photos. I love all the blue. :)

Jai Joshi said...

I hope you guys get enough rain to cover your shortage. Best wishes, Al.

Jai

Al said...

Hi Indigo,
It is the nature of our land. Dry to wet and back again. It is probably the natural way down here.

Hi Bru,
Thank you very much. That means a lot to me!

Hi Niki,
Terrifying!
Thank you!

Hi Jai,
We need above average rainfall for a few years now. Thank you!

Lisa said...

Wow, Oz does a much better job at using reservoirs than the U.S. from the looks of things. I'm always thinking that there must be some way to get the excess water from the places were it is to the places it needs to be. Clearly Oz already has a handle on this.

Lauren F. Boyd said...

Your photos are gorgeous!

And thanks for stopping by my blog! It's nice to meet you!

http://laurenspathtopub.blogspot.com/