OFFICIAL drought figures reveal just 1.9 per cent of New South Wales is considered satisfactory.
The area of NSW battling drought is 73.6 per cent, a marked increase from last month (up from 67.7 per cent), says Minister for Primary Industries, Tony Kelly.
The area of NSW which is considered satisfactory has decreased to 1.9 per cent of the State (down from 4.9 per cent), while 24.5 percent of NSW is considered marginal (down from 27.4 per cent).
“These figures illustrate the tough conditions in country NSW with almost the entire state now feeling the effects of this relentless dry,” says Mr Kelly.
“Not even the coastal areas of NSW have escaped; they are either drought declared or suffering marginal conditions.
“In fact, the latest drought map of our state only shows one satisfactory patch, which is in the Central Tablelands.
“As summer approaches, we can expect warmer temperatures and hot winds – this combined with the forecast of below average rainfall will see pasture growth and water supplies decline.”
Mr Kelly says Industry & Investment NSW had estimated that the winter crop harvest was now more than 75 per cent complete and dry conditions had taken a devastating toll.
“Hot, dry weather prompted an early harvest this year and in most parts yields have been disappointing due to a combination of moisture stress and frost damage,” he says.
“Farmers planted 3.2 million hectares of wheat this year, however just 2.6 million hectares is expected to harvested.
“The NSW cotton crop is forecast at 100,000 hectares, which is still less than 50 per cent of normal plantings.
“While livestock condition and the availability of stock water is reasonable, many areas will face stock water issues over summer if we don’t receive decent rain soon.
“In terms of water supplies, the total storage level is 31 per cent of total storage capacity, up 3.2 per cent on last month and 0.6 per cent lower than the same time last year.”
Tags: drought Australia NSW
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Posted on 24 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Collapsed bridges: 1. Northside Footbridge, Workington 2. Northside Bridge, Workington 3. Camerton Footbridge, Camerton 4. Lorton Bridge, Cockermouth 5. Newlands Beck Bridge, upstream of Braithwaite 6. Dalemain Footbridge, Dalemain
Closed bridges: 7. Calva Bridge, Workington 8. Goat Bridge, Cockermouth 9.Holmrook Bridge, Holmrook 10. Ouse Bridge, north of Dubwath 11. Isel Bridge, near Cockermouth 12. Braithwaite Village Bridge 13. Southwaite Bridge 14. Broughton Bridge 15. Bridge End, Egremont 16. Spark Bridge 17. Backbarrow Bridge (off A590) 18. Bouthrey Bridge, Water Yeat 19. Station Road, Broughton in Furness
Source: Cumbria County Council as of 1600 GMT, 22 November
Tags: Cumbria
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Posted on 24 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
The threat from three major fires burning in the New England, north-west New South Wales region has been downgraded from watch and act to advice.
The Rural Fire Service is continuing to work strengthening containment lines around a fire burning at Sawn Rocks near Narrabri.
Two fires burning in the Glen Innes area are also not threatening homes.
The first is burning at Flagstone Creek in difficult to reach terrain, the second is near Torrington.
Fire conditions across the state have eased and are expected to remain mild today.
Tags: bushfire fire tamworth narrabri
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Posted on 24 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
New figures show that nearly three quarters of New South Wales is now in drought.
About 73.6 per cent of the state is now affected – that is up nearly six percentage points from last month.
The Primary Industries Minister Tony Kelly says not even coastal areas have escaped.
He says many are either drought declared or marginal.
“Particularly on the north coast,” he said.
“The fact that they have had some floods there and significant rain is a very temporary thing.
“It hasn’t solved the problem in fact that north coast area, which you would normally think is out of drought, and normally is out of drought is now in the drought declared area.”
Only 1.9 per cent of the state is considered to be satisfactory.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/23/2750692.htm?site=westernplains
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Posted on 23 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
MORE than 1,800 bridges are on the brink of collapse in storm-ravaged Cumbria, experts warned last night.
Six bridges are already down, battered by surging flood water – prompting engineers to fear the others will go within hours.
The deluged town of Workington faced being cut off last night as the storms threatened to wash away the last bridge standing.
More than 20,000 townsfolk faced living on an island without power or gas as experts warned Calva Bridge – their only remaining link with the mainland – was on the brink of collapse.
It has been weakened by three days of torrential rain and 95 mph winds sparking “Biblical’’ scale floods.
The insurance bill for the flood claims in Cumbria and south Scotland is expected to be in the region of £50-100 million, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said on Sunday.
Tags: blibical, Cumbria, flood
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Posted on 23 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Flash flooding is expected to strike several Victorian regions today as heavy rain continues to fall throughout the state.
As drivers were warned of dangerous road conditions and localised flooding throughout Melbourne, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe
weather warning for the Alpine areas as well as the North-Eastern, Western, North Central, Northern Country, Wimmera, Central, West and South Gippsland districts.
Overnight, up to 75mm of rain fell in parts of central Victoria, with about 35mm in the Mallee and Noth-East district.
In Melbourne, 46mm of rain has fallen in the 24 hours to 9am today, with 56mm at Melbourne Airport, 48mm at Viewbank, 46mm at Scoresby and 37mm at Epping and Moorabbin.
”Reservoir levels probably won’t rise much on the back of the rain we’ve seen so far, especially because the heatwave has left the catchments fairly dry,” a Melbourne Water spokesman said.
Tags: flash flooding, Victoria
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Posted on 23 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Image Source: African Photography Blog
AUSTRALIA: Coastal NSW looks set to get a dose of the record-breaking hot temperatures seen throughout the state’s inland, as lightning storms and winds spark numerous bushfires.
Temperatures at some centres in western NSW continued to climb late on Friday afternoon, while a lightning storm passed over the Blue Mountains starting an unknown number of new fires.
Those storms also knocked out power supply to homes and businesses.
About 9000 addresses on Sydney’s northern beaches and some on the Central Coast were without power because of the storms, EnergyAustralia said in a statement.
Tags: electrcial, Fire, lightning, storms
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Posted on 22 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Extreme Storms
Storm grounds Reno flights; I-80 crash stalls cars
RENO, Nev.—A winter storm with winds gusting to more than 80 mph Friday knocked out power for thousands of people in northern Nevada, grounded flights and kicked up dust storms that contributed to a fatal pile-up that shut down a stretch of U.S. Interstate 80.
The storm had dumped several inches of snow on the Sierra by Friday afternoon and was expected to bring as much as a foot to the mountains by Saturday. But the high winds postponed scheduled openings Friday at several ski resorts before next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.
One gust of 104 mph was recorded near the Mount Rose Ski Resort between Reno and Lake Tahoe, where winds were sustained between 35 mph and 50 mph.
The howling winds reduced visibility to near zero with blowing dust and dirt in the middle of the day on I-80 about 60 miles east of Reno where the eight-vehicle wreck killed one, seriously injured six and shut down both westbound lanes for several hours.
“I believe it was weather related,” Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said about the crash that backed up westbound traffic for miles. The eastbound lanes were not effected.
The wreck about 1 p.m. involved four semitrailer trucks and three pickup trucks, including one in which the person who died had been a passenger, Allen said. The name of the victim had not been released.
The storm also brought rain and snow flurries to the valley floors in the Reno area, where power lines were toppled.
Tags: reno, snow, winter
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Posted on 22 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
NORTH COWICHAN — Heavy flooding caused by relentless rain and high tides forced hundreds of people Friday to flee their homes in the Cowichan Valley.
A state of emergency covering North Cowichan, Duncan and Cowichan Tribes land was declared after residents awoke to rapidly rising waters in the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers.
“We barely got out of here,” said Rob Kloosterman, as he carried two yowling cats to dry ground from his home on Beverly Street in North Cowichan.
When his wife woke up at 7 a.m., everything was normal, Kloosterman said. But half an hour later, neighbours knocked on his door, and Kloosterman saw his Cobble Hill Taxi vehicles were almost underwater. “When I left in one cab I had three inches of water inside on the floor,” he said.
Inside his house “things are bad. There’s four inches of water everywhere. It’s sad, very sad,” Kloosterman said.
Over on Trunk Road, the waters came earlier.
“We got a phone call at 4:30 a.m. from our neighbour and she was flipping out,” said Chris Halpin, clad in hip waders, standing on a dry part of the street. “The water was up to here,” he said, holding his hand about a metre above the ground.
Neighbour Bill Bowers awoke to see water flowing through his garage. Then his hot tub was picked up and floated across his yard.
The flood was almost too much for Tina Baker, 30, to take. She lost nearly everything from her Heather Street rental property. “I just went through a divorce, I just went through back surgery two weeks ago — what do you do?” she said, her eyes still brimming with tears.
Her sons, ages three and five, were upset at the loss of favourite toys. The family’s cat is missing. Her dad died in 2003 and the belongings he left behind are underwater, she said.
“It’s stuff I can’t replace and he’s not here anymore,” she said.
North Cowichan-Duncan RCMP Const. Ed Power said many streets were flooded, and the homes alongside. In some areas, search-and-rescue crews were called in to help evacuate homes. Roads were closed all over the valley.
The Cowichan Community Centre offered hot coffee and a place to rest for occupants of about 300 homes that had been evacuated.
The flooding forced Cowichan Valley school district officials to close several schools for the day along Beverly Street. Volunteers used unflooded parts of the school grounds and parking lots to fill sandbags.
“This is the worst it’s been since I’ve been here, almost 60 years,” said Bill Mann, a school district carpenter.
North Cowichan spokesman Mark Ruttan said this type of flooding, which is centred around the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers, has not been this severe for some time.
“Not for many years,” he said. “There are dikes along Beverly Street, and Lakes Road was built up years ago. It’s protected it until now, but this is just an extremely unusual rain event. It’s a lot of rain combined with some high tides.”
Bill Kuhnke, manager of forecasting and information for the Ministry of Environment, said the Cowichan-area flooding was caused by similar factors that led to flood problems around Courtenay earlier this week. He said at noon that flood levels had begun to fall.
Ruttan said more rain was forecast for today, as well has high tides about mid-morning. “We have not lifted the evacuation order yet,” he said, adding he expected the state of emergency in the area to remain in place for a few more days.
The provincial government said Friday that flood victims in Cowichan, Nanaimo and Comox would be eligible for disaster financial assistance, which covers 80 per cent of claims exceeding $1,000.
On the mainland, meanwhile, residents can expect rain, sun, rain and more rain over the next few days. The next storm was expected to blow in later today. “It doesn’t appear to be a big storm, but it will pack some punch with some rain and increasing southeast wind,” Global BC senior meteorologist Mark Madryga said.
A high-pressure ridge will bring a slight break to the windy, wet weather Sunday afternoon. “Everything points toward at least a few bright spots,” Madryga said.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/approves+disaster+
relief+flooded+communities/2247349/story.html
Tags: Cowichan, flooding
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Posted on 22 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Flood-stricken parts of the UK are bracing themselves for more rain after an “unprecedented” deluge swamped homes and brought down bridges.
Forecasters predict Saturday will bring 15mm (0.5in) to 40mm (1.6in) of rain to Cumbria, where police said 100 people spent the night in emergency shelters.
There are 24 flood warnings in force across Scotland, northern England, the Midlands and Wales. Four are “severe”.
They all affect Cumbria, where Pc Bill Barker died after a bridge collapsed.
Pc Barker, 44, was directing motorists off the bridge in Workington when a swollen river caused it to cave in.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8371796.stm
Tags: Cumbria, flooding, UK
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Posted on 22 November '09 by Steve, under Uncategorized. No Comments.
