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OT: Wind farms, scepticism and the future 11-Jun-2009 At 11:38:25 AM R James

Message

On 11/06/2009 Wendy wrote:
>>On 10/06/2009 Wendy wrote:
>>
>>Um, how many years of drought have we had out here now ... 12 -13? Recently
>>declared "unprecented" by the DPI.
>Rainfall
>Since 1950, most of eastern and south-western Australia has experienced
>substantial rainfall declines. Across New South Wales and Queensland these
>rainfall trends partly reflect a very wet period around the 1950s, though
>recent years have been unusually dry. In contrast, north-west Australia
>has become wetter over this period, mostly during summer.
>From 1950 to 2005, extreme daily rainfall intensity and frequency has
>increased in north-western and central Australia and over the western tablelands
>of New South Wales, but decreased in the south-east and south-west and
>along the central east coast.

As stated earlier, I like to get as close to raw data, rather than believe the media etc. Have a look at the Aus Bureau of Meteorology http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/timeseries.cgi?graph=rranom&area=aus&season=0112&ave_yr=0 For the past 100 years, there has been little change in rainfall patterns, even for areas like the Murray Darling Basin. If anything, the trend is slightly increasing. Aus has always gone through wet and dry cycles.

>Oceans
>Global sea levels rose by about 17 cm during the 20th century, and by
>around 10 cm from 1920-2000 at the Australian coastal sites monitored.

I plot sea level data from Fort Denison (Sydney) going back to 1965. There's been a 31mm increase in the past 43 years, 8mm increase in the past 25 years, and no change in the past 3 years. I can give the link if anyone wants to check. Globally, some areas have rising levels, while others have decreasing sea level. You can see for yourself http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_global.shtml