Are we getting rain this winter?

My title came from a search someone did and ended up at my blog. I’m not sure where “we” lives, but if they live in Perth, on 29 July when they did the search I thought Perth’s rain was over for the winter. I was wrong, but we did have 11 days of no rain from 26 July to 5 August. Temperatures hovered around 20°C and it felt like summer had arrived.

In July rain fell on only 16 days, half a month of no rain when July is Perth’s wettest month. I can’t believe I had to water some of my garden!? It was from the rainwater tank so it’s been replaced since then, but one morning I spent too long watering, missed my bus and had to wait half an hour for the next one. Despite so many fine days we still received 149.6mm of rain, only slightly below July’s average rainfall of 152.9mm. In June we received 20mm above the average, so for the two months rainfall was higher than average.

Tasty Rainwater

Last year I blogged about getting a rainwater tank and said I’d be drinking rainwater soon. I got it at the end of winter, but it filled with rain from the unusual downpours in November. I didn’t start drinking it then because my dad suggested I don’t drink the initial water, to ensure any contaminants from manufacture were washed away. Over summer I used the water on the garden and the tank filled again this winter. Now, nine months later, I’m drinking rainwater from my tank.

The first time I drank water from the tank it tasted so different to mains water from the kitchen tap. I thought it tasted purer, but that might be the only way I can think of to describe the difference. I have an old house, with ancient plumbing and I’m sure this does something to the water. In summer I don’t like drinking it straight from the tap, I refrigerate it first. In winter the cold air refrigerates it, so I don’t taste whatever it is I don’t like* (and it is the plumbing that affects the taste, not chlorine or fluoride or whatever, I’m happy to drink water straight from the tap at other houses). After drinking rainwater for a few weeks I’ve got used to whatever the difference is and it just tastes like water now, but I still love drinking it. Water is my favourite drink.

More on rain (not more rain)

Since May’s rain there’s been lots more sunny days, until this week. The satellite image of the cloud cover on Thursday morning showed a large portion of WA covered in thick cloud. This produced a nice downpour of 22.2mm for Perth, with June’s rainfall so far now 43.6mm. As a result we’re no longer having the driest January to June on record [1], but the rain didn’t last. It’s been fine since then and the forecast is for more un-June sunny weather until Thursday, even if the temperature has dropped.

Last winter I blogged about Perth’s water restrictions:

Only in October 2007 were restrictions placed on summer bore use, for irrigating residential gardens, parks, sporting fields and golf courses. Theoretically restrictions shouldn’t be needed in winter months because you’d think people would realise that irrigation isn’t necessary when it’s raining. Sadly, I’ve seen sprinklers in use at Curtin University and gardens near my house, when it was raining.

Winter weather

I’ve been hibernating from blogging while writing my thesis, but I had to blog about winter’s late arrival. There was a dismal amount of rain in May, 46mm on only 4 days with almost half falling on one day. This is way below the monthly average of 87mm and means in the last five months Perth has had a severe rainfall deficiency (in the lowest 5% of historical totals). To complement this, Monday was the hottest June day on record: 26°C. The cold weather has supposedly arrived now with 6°C last night (even though sunny days are forecast until Wednesday).

A wet November

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the unusual rainfall this spring.

The start of November had 29.4mm over four days, already above the monthly average of 19.7mm. So far the less than average rainfall in September has not been cancelled out by November’s deluge. The average from 1 September to 30 November is 152mm and we’ve had 143.6mm. If the forecast rain falls we’ll be going even more above November’s average, but may only meet the three month average. Seeing as predicting the weather isn’t my forte, I’ll get back to reporting on what’s been and gone.

All that rain

Well into spring rain is still falling in Perth. I was so sure this year’s rain had ended, but there’s more forecast for the end of the week. There was 38.4mm in October, slightly below the average of 43.1mm. But the start of November had 29.4mm over four days, already above the monthly average of 19.7mm. So far the less than average rainfall in September has not been cancelled out by November’s deluge. The average from 1 September to 30 November is 152mm and we’ve had 143.6mm. If the forecast rain falls we’ll be going even more above November’s average, but may only meet the three month average. Seeing as predicting the weather isn’t my forte, I’ll get back to reporting on what’s been and gone.

Drinking Rain (next year)

I’ve been planning to get a rainwater tank (also known as a rainwater barrel or butt depending on where you live) since the start of the year, in time for last winter’s rain, but things got in the way. I first thought I would use the collected water for my garden in summer, but then I realised it would last about a week in Perth’s dry summers. Then I decided I would drink the rain water. My friends at Nuts about Natives do this and it works well. They have a ceramic and charcoal filter, and scrub the roof and guttering before the first winter rains.

Now, after much um-ing and ah-ing I have a rainwater tank. It was delivered during the very wet week in September. It’s a 1500L above ground tank in heritage green, to match the posts of my carport. To get my drinking water, I will fill a ceramic and carbon filter from the tank tap and it will sit in the kitchen, to provide all my drinking needs. Now the hot weather has arrived I’m drinking a lot more water. I’ve decided not to plumb the tank into my house, mainly because it would run out very quickly. The WA Department of Water provides rebates for part of the cost of rainwater tanks. It’s only $50 if the tank is not plumbed into the house, but it’s still worth it.

Sunny Spring

Spring sprung a couple of months ago and summer is on its way. Hot days of 30°C have started already and the rain has pretty much ended for the year. I thought it rained quite a bit at the end of September, but we recieved less than the September average of 90.1mm. Last month 75.8mm of rain fell, 39.6mm in the last week and 21mm on Thursday of that week. I got a rainwater tank during that week. Sadly, despite the copious rain, my tank wasn’t connected and missed it all. Perth gets some rain during the rest of the year (on average 69.2mm), but it won’t make a dint in the tank until next winter. I should have got it at the start of winter, when I first planned to.

The Bureau of Meteorology said September’s rainfall has not improved drought conditions in most areas of Australia.

Below average September 2008 rainfall over Victoria, southern NSW, SA and the WA interior maintained short and long-term deficiencies in these areas. In contrast, average to above average September falls over much of the remainder of the country gave some minor relief to short-term deficits over southwest WA, northeast NSW, southwest NT and Queensland.

April Showers

Perth has just had the wettest April on record. (Rainfall records in Perth commenced in 1876.) The Bureau of Meteorology said,

As an example of the relatively dry period that Perth has been experiencing in recent decades, the breaking of the April rainfall record is the first occurrence of a monthly rainfall record in any autumn or winter month since Perth’s July rainfall record was exceeded in 1958.

April (mid autumn) isn’t usually such a wet month in Perth, but in April last year 76.4mm of rain fell – more than double the average amount. The wettest day had 40mm. This April had 153.6mm of rainfall – five times the average. The main culprit was the day 58.6mm of rain fell. This didn’t mean we lacked sunshine or 28°C+ days (6 of them). Rain fell on only 13 days of April. Halfway through April April’s average rainfall was 31.1mm, but because of April 2008’s deluge, the average has now risen to 38.8mm.

Rain in Spring

Spring isn’t usually that wet in Perth, but it was in September and the start of October (the sun’s arrived in force this past week).

Perth had 100.6mm of rain in September, more than the average of 89.3mm. And there were a couple more rainy days (rainfall more than 1mm) than usual, 13 as opposed to the average of 11 days.

Despite the adequate rainfall in Perth, the rest of Australia is not fairing so well.

Rainfall deficits have expanded and intensified over the southern half of the country as a result of widespread below to very much below average September rainfall…Record low falls for this particular 12-month period were recorded just to the east of Melbourne, and along WA’s west coast between Shark Bay and Geraldton.