Issued on 8 August 2001
Some relief in W.A. but deficiencies develop in SE Australia
The Bureau of Meteorology announced today that heavy rainfall in late July eased the rainfall deficit situation in parts of southern and western W.A. However, large areas of deficiency still persist in the west of the continent. Also, poor late autumn and winter rains in the southeast have resulted in deficits across parts of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
5-month rainfall deficiencies
The first map shows the regions in southern and western W.A. that have serious to severe deficiencies for the five-month period from March to July. In some places, totals were the lowest on record for this particular period. Much of this area also experienced rainfall deficiencies during the 2000 growing season as well. Heavy rain at the end of July helped to ease or eliminate deficiencies in the area north of Perth and in the region bounded by Albany, Esperance and Kalgoorlie.
Above average July rainfall totals largely removed the small area of deficiencies in southeast New South Wales and the ACT.
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3-month rainfall deficiencies
Rainfall has been well below average for the three-month period from May to July across southeast Australia. Serious to severe deficiencies have devloped over western and central Victoria, northern Tasmania and the southeast corner of South Australia. This comes after four years of generally below average rainfall that has left many water storages severely depleted.
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8-month rainfall deficiencies
There was little change in the pattern of Queensland rainfall deficits which are largely a reflection of poor summer rains. For the eight months from December 2000 to July, serious to severe rainfall deficiencies exist in southern Queensland coastal districts from Marlborough to Gympie and in an adjoining area stretching from Roma to Gladstone.
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