It Has RAINED in January

It is the monsoon season so you expect rain in January. But.....it has rained a LOT. Twenty four out of thirty one days this month here in Darwin, and if you take the period before the end of 2009, there was rain on thirty six days straight from late December through to mid January.

Not the wettest month on record [ January 1995 - 940mm] but with 622mm it was about 1.5 times the average, and the wettest January in 12 years.

Several cyclones were brewing around the north of Australia too in January, but none thankfully reached Darwin although a few did create some havoc...........and a lot of positives too.

Cyclone Laurence after crossing the WA coast continued through to the east part of Australia, passing through areas around Alice Springs and brought drought breaking rains. Around Alice Springs they had over 140mm of rain in a few days........about twice that fell for 2009!

At the present time ex Tropical Cyclone Olga that has meandered around the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Coral Sea over the past two weeks as both a cyclone and a tropical low, has now moved into Queensland as a massive, deep, tropical low with very high rainfalls and considerable river flooding in north, west and southwest Queensland. BUT........very welcome rain. This system is quite likely to bring flows into Coopers Creek, floods to the upper Darling River and the Murray River by the end of the week, as it moves south across the continent.

For some of these areas this will be drought breaking rain.

Ironic that a tropical cyclone with its genesis at the northern tip of Australia will eventually bring rain to South Australia just about 3500km to the south!! Not always pleasant to be in the path of a cyclone, but the rain they bring is vital for rural areas.