3 feet of rain sets up 4th round of flood misery for Sydney

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

SYDNEY (AP) — More than 30,000 residents of Sydney and its surrounds were told to evacuate or prepare to abandon their homes Monday as Australia’s largest city faces its fourth, and possibly worst, round of flooding in less than a year and a half.

Days of torrential rain caused dams to overflow and waterways to break their banks, bringing a new flood emergency to parts of the city of 5 million people.

“The latest information we have is that there’s a very good chance that the flooding will be worse than any of the other three floods that those areas had in the last 18 months,” Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said.

The current flooding might affect areas that were spared during the previous floods in March last year, March this year and April, Watt added.



An emergency vehicle blocks access to the flooded Windsor Bridge on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, Monday, July 4, 2022. More than 30,000 residents of Sydney and its surrounds have been told to evacuate or prepare to abandon their homes on Monday as Australia's largest city braces for what could be its worst flooding in 18 months. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/floods-sydney-australia-evacuations-new-south-wales-1ad3cba6a4bfc7a21655e5867d217249

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Meanwhile Lake Mead is pretty much barely pumping water through the Hoover dam

and risks soon becoming a "dead pool" thanks to the record low water level caused by the extreme drought in the area.

[LeftInTX]

9. When it rains in Australia, there's a drought in the American Southwest

Anomalous warm water wells up near Australia and causes rain. (East to West trades in the tropics) Stronger trades cause droughts in the tropical E Pac region (Impacting the US SW )

When it floods here, they have droughts over there....

There seems to be no happy medium either...

Droughts and floods, droughts and floods...

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Yup

(as a 50+ year weather hobbyist )

Mother nature continually tries to come into equilibrium so where it might be excessively hot/above normal temps, it will be anomalously below normal elsewhere (which has been happening of late in parts of the NE and Midatlantic during the MW/SW heat).

We are in a rare 3rd year in a row for a La Nina ENSO state, and this is what is fueling the flooding/drought pattern.

What is wild is that is expected to continue through to the end of this year!

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml

[NickB79]

2. Australia is the canary in the coalmine for climate change

Seesawing between floods, fires and drought. Eventually their farming sector won't be able to keep supplying the world with food exports, they'll be busy just keeping their own population fed.

[Old Crank]

8. I read that China, Russia, and possibly the US

Won't be able to continue to try and dominate the world because they will be too busy taking care of business at home from fires, drought, and flooding.
This is just the start. The fires in Russia and the problems in north China will just get worse.

[IronLionZion]

3. Flooding or bushfires

Australia can't seem to catch a break.

Maybe they can save some of that water in reservoirs to help during the next draught.

[TeamProg]

4. Dams overflowed so I think they were saving water.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

5. Wow. We spent a week in that area in 2018.

Lovely area outsider of Sydney. So dry when we were there. It was spring time then.

[70sEraVet]

6. Unbelievable amounts of rain!

[Mysterian]

7. They had that clown Morrison for PM for almost four years

People need to do a better job picking their governments. It's really become a matter of life and death.

[hatrack]

11. Fun Fact: Every 1F increase in temperature means storms can hold up to 7% more water

.

[Martin68]

12. Wow!