I looked up some photos of my place back in 2003-4 and it's just the same again. Not a blade of grass on my small acreage.
Fortunately I've got town water so can keep fruit trees and garden alive but I shudder to think what the water bill will be.
Never mind, I'll just have to give up the Chateau Rothschild for a while.

The thing is this drought seems to have come up so.quickly and the.continuous heat wave hasn't helped. Plus there has been absolutely no relief from summer storm downpours.

Still, could rain next week.

Hi Bogarde - it's been very dry in Melbourne lately.

I wonder if we're heading for a drought here?

Don't know. Do you get droughts down there?

Have a look at this -

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-26/100-years-of-drought/5282030

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-26/100-years-of-drought/5282030


68 was a good year, 69 nasty, I remember that

"Australia suffers worst drought in 1,000 years "

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/nov/08/australia.drought

Compare 2006 to 1940.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o58TpvXpWw


Early Pacific Typhoon, Australian Wheat Decline & Climate Models Adjusted (532)


Adapt 2030
Published on Feb 15, 2018
Some areas of Australia have seen up to 70% reductions compared to last years output. Reasons are drought and cold related issues. Only Western Australia have made gains. Also because of this Australian wheat is expensive compared to international markets so exporters are having a difficult time finding buyers. Early season typhoon rolls across the southern Philippines and onto Vietnam. New study from University of Exeter shows IPCC warming is off by a factor of 2, meaning all of the IPCC projections are 2X to high, but you wont see that in the news.

Extreme weather leads to patchwork harvest with yields up to 70 pc down on last year.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-02-06/extreme-weather-leads-to-patchwork-grain-harvest/9400288


"We had a June and September where we recorded zero rain, which is unprecedented. Then we had 65 days of frost during winter, and during September we threw a 40-degree day in there just for fun."

bogarde73 wrote on Feb 15^th, 2018 at 3:24pm:

I looked up some photos of my place back in 2003-4 and it's just the same again. Not a blade of grass on my small acreage. Fortunately I've got town water so can keep fruit trees and garden alive but I shudder to think what the water bill will be. Never mind, I'll just have to give up the Chateau Rothschild for a while. The thing is this drought seems to have come up so.quickly and the.continuous heat wave hasn't helped. Plus there has been absolutely no relief from summer storm downpours. Still, could rain next week.

You're Sth Highlands? I read an article about it the other day. Supposed to be as dryasanuns

Looks like a drought is on the way.
I hope our water desal plant will work?

https://www.melbournewater.com.au/community-and-education/about-our-water/water-supply/desalination

Bobby. wrote on Feb 15^th, 2018 at 8:15pm:

Looks like a drought is on the way. I hope our water desal plant will work? https://www.melbournewater.com.au/community-and-education/about-our-water/water-supply/desalination

I knew they would have to use it one day. Cape town is experiencing a bad drought with water rationing !!

Those d.ckheads who keep denying global warming should try and shower for 30 seconds.

Sir lastnail wrote on Feb 15^th, 2018 at 8:18pm:

Bobby. wrote on Feb 15th, 2018 at 8:15pm: Looks like a drought is on the way. I hope our water desal plant will work? https://www.melbournewater.com.au/community-and-education/about-our-water/water-supply/desalination I knew they would have to use it one day. Cape town is experiencing a bad drought with water rationing !! Those d.ckheads who keep denying global warming should try and shower for 30 seconds.

And Cape Town has a burgeoning population and a severe lack of infrastructure (dams) to cater for this population rise.

Do you think there were no droughts before AGW? ::)

lee wrote on Feb 15^th, 2018 at 9:05pm:

Sir lastnail wrote on Feb 15th, 2018 at 8:18pm: Bobby. wrote on Feb 15th, 2018 at 8:15pm: Looks like a drought is on the way. I hope our water desal plant will work? https://www.melbournewater.com.au/community-and-education/about-our-water/water-supply/desalination I knew they would have to use it one day. Cape town is experiencing a bad drought with water rationing !! Those d.ckheads who keep denying global warming should try and shower for 30 seconds. And Cape Town has a burgeoning population and a severe lack of infrastructure (dams) to cater for this population rise. Do you think there were no droughts before AGW? ::)

The population is expanding exponentially in Melbourne.

We'll need our desal plant.

PPPPPPP

Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

You just wish you could control the weather. I have been hoping that the heat we received this week means that we get compensated with plentiful rain -- all over Qld and anywhere in drought. I am about to go out and give the grass a good spraying over with the hose. Or I could give the washing the car a go to see if there is any truth in the urban legend. The car needs a wash, anyway.

Bobby. wrote on Feb 15^th, 2018 at 9:28pm:

lee wrote on Feb 15th, 2018 at 9:05pm: Sir lastnail wrote on Feb 15th, 2018 at 8:18pm: Bobby. wrote on Feb 15th, 2018 at 8:15pm: Looks like a drought is on the way. I hope our water desal plant will work? https://www.melbournewater.com.au/community-and-education/about-our-water/water-supply/desalination I knew they would have to use it one day. Cape town is experiencing a bad drought with water rationing !! Those d.ckheads who keep denying global warming should try and shower for 30 seconds. And Cape Town has a burgeoning population and a severe lack of infrastructure (dams) to cater for this population rise. Do you think there were no droughts before AGW? ::) The population is expanding exponentially in Melbourne. We'll need our desal plant.

According to a Megastructures documentary, Melbourne was in the process of making a desalination plant. Whatever happened to that project?

lee wrote on Feb 15^th, 2018 at 9:39pm:

PPPPPPP Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

I think they need to make dams in Qld about 100km apart (or near populated areas) just to use during rain seasons, so that the farmer can save on tank water. However, you would need it to rain a bit for its success. And the costs would be prohibitive. Then the idea was thought up that we build large pipes to pipe water from coastal areas to these inland areas. However, the idea is that much of the water would evaporate in the pipes before it got to the inland areas.... and the costs would be prohibitive.

Wa would be stuffed without desal.

Stream flows in our water supply dams have decreased by 90%

We have 10% of the flows we originally had.

No point in building new dams,,, in fact the Water Authority has sold off land that was destined to be catchment area because they are not building some dams and the land is no longer required.

The main problem with WA dams is, apart from less rainfall, that the catchment area is no longer cleared. That reduces streamflow into the dams significantly.

"The  catchments  were  set  up  as  clearing experiments  in  the  Collie  River  Basin  in  the  early 1970s.  A catchment pair was instrumented in the high rainfall  zone  (1100mm/yr),  and  three  catchments  in the    intermediate    rainfall    zone    (700
mm/yr). Following  clearing  the  discharge  coefficient  has risen by a factor of 5 in the wetter catchments, and about 10in  the  intermediate  rainfall  catchments.    Some  of  this increase occurs almost immediately following clearing,  before  there  is  a  significant  rise  in  the watertable."

http://ewater.org.au/archive/crcch/archive/pubs/pdfs/technical200404.pdf

miketrees wrote on Feb 18^th, 2018 at 2:30pm:

Wa would be stuffed without desal. Stream flows in our water supply dams have decreased by 90% We have 10% of the flows we originally had. No point in building new dams,,, in fact the Water Authority has sold off land that was destined to be catchment area because they are not building some dams and the land is no longer required.

Are those two recent cyclones, you have been getting in WA, been able to fill those dams? Or are they missing your area?

The dams are in the south of the state and not affectedby the cyclones.

It pretty rare for the cyclones to get over the dams, usually they slide down well east of the Darling Range.

hows that drought going up north?

im hearing about a lot of rains etc.. floods

anywhere near you Bog?

read this...

https://www.bookdepository.com/Kidman-The-Forgotten-King-Jill-Bowen/9780732286101?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base2&utm_source=AU&utm_content=Kidman-The-Forgotten-King&selectCurrency=AUD&w=AF45AU9SSR1U3FA80R5FAC4T&pdg=pla-104398008339:kwd-104398008339:cmp-680104063:adg-35441289072:crv-151945028117:pid-9780732286101:dev-c&gclid=CjwKCAiA_c7UBRAjEiwApCZi8bwOsKhqi9hYkT_zmV3zqTTSn0z17P_Uvyy4R67lGWy_4demEN0AxhoCL7EQAvD_BwE

it shows you how Kidman used his knowledge of Australian droughts and floods that made him the Cattle King of australia..

absolutely brilliant...

Bobby. wrote on Feb 15^th, 2018 at 3:45pm:

Hi Bogarde - it's been very dry in Melbourne lately. I wonder if we're heading for a drought here?

It has been dry in Melbourne lately.
We've had just 3 mm in the past 5 weeks
But that's not too uncommon at this time of year