Wednesday, January 14, 2009

2008 Climate Summary

It is that time again when the BoM release their annual summary on the previous year in terms of temperature and rainfall.


Key findings:


  • The mean annual temperature across Australia for 2008 was the 14th warmest on record (0.41°C above normal).

  • A warm year was recorded in most regions, apart from Queensland, northeast New South Wales and the Kimberley (Western Australia).

  • Above average annual rainfall was recorded across the Top End, eastern Queensland, northeast New South Wales and far west parts of Western Australia. Rainfall was average to below average in the remainder of the country.

  • Low rainfall over the southern Murray Darling Basin during 2008 further exacerbated the long dry spell in this region.

other key quotes:

Australia has experienced a background warming of about 0.9°C over the last
Century.
Rainfall during 2008 was insufficient to break the long dry spell in the
southeast (including Tasmania). Across much of Victoria and adjacent areas of
South Australia and New South Wales rainfall has been below average for most of
the past 12 years.



Pity Andrew Bolt is on leave. As the data shows how wrong his 7 graphs were. In fact if you go to the BoM site and look at the historical long term data it is evident there are some concerning trends. For example, we are meant to be in a La Nina cycle that is meant to bring more rainfall to South East Australia, yet large portions of are well below average.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We really need to drop a 'Bom' on Bolt...save the world a lot of hassle.

dam buster said...

something like that. Current data just proves how ill founded most of Bolt's 7 graphs are.

Melbourne Tram Driver said...

I thought of Andrew Bolt just before I scrolled down to his name. I doubt we'll be hearing any sort of details from him any time soon. He'll be too busy basking in Howard's current "glory".

dam buster said...

Spot on Rob. expect words such as "Statesman".

As for Bolt's graphs, the guys at grodscorp have included the one on sea ice growth as well.