Australian fires?

[Tony Alfrey]

Keith Antoine wrote:
> Tony Alfrey wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> The flooding of north queensland was the first of the major 
>>> disasters, but this is fairly normal on a yearly basis but this time 
>>> it was huge some places
>>> had up to 1000mm in 24hrs
>>
>> A meter a day??  Are you sure you don't have an extra decimal point in 
>> that?
>>
> In this particular case and this year the monsoon has dumped more rain 
> than in "living memory", it covers ahuge area and to do that some places
> have had monsterous quantities. Further south around Tully and Babinda 
> they usually have 400mm in 16hrs, this year between 600 and 800mm.
> Like the fires the floods have been massive. Australia is the place for 
> over the top weather changes, but then you too have had massive snow
> dumps and in places that do not usually get it.

More snow this year in the "Midwest" as we call it and East, but not in 
CA.  This year has been a drought; only now are we getting some rain 
which may bring it back to something close to a normal year.  But Calif 
is basically a desert that depends on the mountain snowpack for water. 
80% of CA water goes to agriculture and we grow things like cotton and 
rice in a desert, and the price of water is subsidized for agriculture, 
so certainly some things will change as the climate changes.

> 
> It is beeing bandied around here that this is what we have to expect in 
> future, although in the SE we had more rain in Nov/Dec and now its 
> drought again.

Stupid question of the week:  if you have rain in Queensland and drought 
in Melbourne, how 'bout a big pipe?  We do dumb things like that in CA.

> 


-- 
Tony Alfrey
tonyalfrey at earthlink.net
"I'd Rather Be Sailing"