MEDIA RELEASE - ISSUED 8^th JANUARY 2001

Statement on Drought for the 9 & 11-month periods ending 31^st December 2000

Rainfall deficits persist in W.A. and Queensland

The Bureau of Meteorology announced today that much of the southwest and west of Western Australia, together with the southeast corner of Queensland, continue to experience rainfall deficiencies following a month of generally below average rainfall in December.

For the nine months from April to December 2000, a large region of western W.A. from Exmouth in the north to Albany and Esperance in the south, has experienced generally severe rainfall deficits (see first map below). The pattern changed very little in December despite some above average falls in northern areas. There have been some record low nine-month totals in the south of the affected region.

The 11 months from February to December 2000 have been deficient in rainfall over southeast Queensland and the far northeast corner of NSW. December rainfall was mainly below the long-term average in this area resulting in a slight expansion of the area of deficiencies. The affected region covers parts of the Darling Downs in Queensland, together with some of the Northern Tablelands and Northern Rivers districts in NSW (see second map below).

Rainfall deficiency maps for standard periods (3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months) are updated monthly on the Bureau's web site, at http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/rain_maps.cgi .

Note: The terms used to describe rainfall in these Drought Statements have the following meanings -

Well below average - rainfalls in the lowest 10% of historical totals
Below average - rainfalls in the lowest 30% of historical totals, but not in the lowest 10%
Average - rainfalls in the middle 40% of historical totals
Above average - rainfalls in the highest 30% of historical totals, but not in the highest 10%
Well above average - rainfalls in the highest 10% of historical totals
Serious deficiency - rainfalls in the lowest 10% of historical totals, but not in the lowest 5%
Severe deficiency - rainfalls in the lowest 5% of historical totals
Lowest on record - lowest since at least 1900 when the data analysed begin

For more information regarding this rainfall deficiencies statement, please contact the following climate meteorologists during normal business hours (EST) Monday to Friday: