(view from the front porch)

Autumn 2010 (#2)

After a false start to the "autumn break" back in March, we seem to have entered into a series of relatively small rain events sweeping up from the south west. The "autumn break" is the real end of the summer dry period, although it was nowhere near as bad (i.e., dry) this year as it was the last. 

The false autumn break back in March (proclaimed even by at least one rural newspaper whose staff should know better) was the tail end of the tropical rain events that brought rain across the whole of the continent from the tropical north, providing more rain to the dry north of Victoria than to the "wetter" south. This series of tropical rain events has turned much of the central Australian deserts green and indeed left flood waters that are still blocking roads in central Australia (as of 25/4/10).

It is interesting to contemplate whether, with climate change, this could become the predominant pattern in summers to come. 

(See also Autumn 2010 #1)