It's raining! It's raining!

Wonderful!

It rained today!!!!

End of 13-year drought within sight
March 30, 2010/the AGE

MELBOURNE could be just 24 hours away from the end of one of the worst droughts in its history, according to the official definitions endorsed by the Bureau of Meteorology.

More rain is expected for the city before tomorrow morning, ending a three-month period that could rank as a drought-breaker.

But experts have urged caution over the figures, saying the length and severity of the 13-year drought have been so extreme that traditional ways of judging its demise may no longer be appropriate.
A thirst for rain

A thirst for rain

Just as economists use official definitions to judge the beginning and end of recessions, the Bureau of Meteorology has two official definitions for judging the end of droughts.

Under the most reliable measure, drought in a location will technically end if rainfall over a three-month period is higher than the rainfall received in the same three-month period in 70 per cent of years.

Put simply, when the three months from January to March 2010 are compared with the first three months of every year since records began, the 2010 rainfall result must be better than 70 per cent of those years, if it is to break the drought. ... <cont>

MELBOURNE has fallen just short of breaking the drought, after the city failed to get the remaining 9.6 millimetres it needed by the end of March to technically end the drought.

Showers that were forecast for Tuesday morning failed to register at the city gauge, meaning rainfall over the three-month period between January and March was just short of the 177 millimetres needed to break the drought.

WILD weather has caused chaos across the state, with power cuts, multiple car accidents, traffic light outages and storm damage.

Thousands of homes are without power, traffic lights are out of action and houses are flooded this morning after the heavy rain which started around 2am.

Adelaide Airport has received 50mm of rain in seven hours while Crafers West has received the most, with 73mm.

The State Emergency Service has responded to more than 70 callouts in the Adelaide metropolitan region since 5.30am.

SES spokeswoman Carmen Lewis said despite the volume of callouts, there had been no serious incidents of damage.......

..........The rain is not expected to abate any time soon, with falls to intensify over the Mt Lofty Ranges in the coming hours, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Vince Rowlands said.

Mr Rowlands said heavy rains were likely to hit the state's south-east.

Slippery roads and poor visibility contributed to a spike in road crashes, with more than 10 minor accidents reported in less than an hour up to 8.30am.

"There are a lot of traffic hazards whether it be water on the road, trees or branches down and drivers should slow down and take care," Senior Constable Paul Noble said.

Several thousand homes in the Findon, Flinders Park and Croydon Park areas are without power as hundreds of lightning strikes accompany the wild weather.

Melbourne's Water Storages:
32.7% full at 6-Jun-2010

Just checked our water storage situation, on the 6th day of winter, 2010.

Warnings mount as intense low sweeps into Victoria
September 3, 2010 - 3:20PM

Rescue boats are on standby in inland Victoria as towns brace for a ‘‘maelstrom’’ of damaging winds, torrential rain and floods this weekend.

Amid mounting warnings, an intense low pressure system is sweeping towards Victoria from South Australia, where it has already dumped more than 22mm of rain on Adelaide amid reports a woman was hit by lightning.

The low is sucking masses of warm, moist air from the tropics, creating an unstable front that will bring high winds and heavy rain as it crosses Victoria over the next 24 hours.

A satellite image of the weather system captured at 9.30am. Photo: Weatherzone

The state’s north and north-east are expected to bear the brunt of the storms.

The weather bureau, State Emergency Service, VicRoads and power companies have all issued alerts and warnings today.

SES Regional Duty Officer Tony Grimme said there was a flurry of preparation under way across the state, including readying inflatable boats for rescue operations in areas around Benalla and Wangaratta.

‘‘We’ve got staff going to Wangaratta as we speak to man the incident control centre. We’re getting everything on track as much as we can without knowing exactly what we need to do,’’ he said.

Duty Officer Grimme said SES members had spent the day loading vehicles and forming observation crews, which would be ‘‘on the road reporting back on local areas’’.

‘‘Probably the biggest threat is flash-flooding in urban areas ,’’ he said. ‘‘Over the weekend, it’s the urban areas that are going to cop it the most, and next week it will move into riverine and low-lying land with livestock....<cont>