Its Raining in Robertson

It is raining in Robertson. This is not very unusual, except for this season.

We have been stuck between the wet weather of points further north (in NSW), and of course, the far distant downpours of Ingham, etc - and the dry, dessicating and destructive weather of Victoria. Normally, Robertson has its highest rainfall of the year in February (with March a close second).
My Blogging colleague, David of "Focus on Nature" has written about just this problem, recently.

Until the last few days, there has been little but mist. Now Robertson has remembered how to rain again. The locals are greatly relieved.

Rainfall last 7 days:
1.0mm; 4.0mm; 3.0mm; 10.0mm; 8.0mm; 2.0mm; 34.0mm
And since 9:00am today, 11:00mm

If anything, these figures are understated. I was told today by a local farmer that he had had "3 inches" in the last few days, and I know he keeps good records, for his wife records the rainfall for him!

Interestingly, there is a lot of rain over central-west Western Australia - coming from a tropical low just off the coast. If that rain washes across the mainland, that would be good news for South Australia. We shall see.

Normally this would not be anything to write about, except for the massive drying off which has occurred in the last 3 weeks. The locals were getting worried.

This map shows the cumulative total rainfall for February 2009. Tyto Tony lives in the purple patch.But look at the white, brown and yellow coloured areas.That's where the rain is needed.

As a side-note, some (but relatively little) of the Queensland rains has fallen west of the Divide, but it was too far north to make any impact on the Murray-Darling System. But Longreach (on the Thomson River) and other points further west, have received some floodwaters from points further north. It is not a huge flood, I would point out. (Click on the map to make the labels legible).Apology. My label over-printed in red on the map is wrongly spelled - Thomson River (no P).

These waters flow into the Cooper Creek and Diamantina River systems, in far south-western Queensland. This means flooding in the iconic "Channel Country". It is expected to make its way down to Lake Eyre, (in South Australia) in about a month's time.

• "The first floodwaters from western Queensland have arrived at Goyder's Lagoon, in the far north-east corner of South Australia, raising hopes the water will flow into Lake Eyre.
• "Water from the Diamantina and Georgina systems is slowly making its way towards the lake, about 300 kilometres away, but it could be a month before it arrives."
• Source: ABC News Website

I remember hearing, as a child that the Pelicans of Lakes Entrance, and other points in Gippsland, leave, in order to fly to Lake Eyre whenever a flood occurs in western Queensland. How they know to do that was always regarded as a great mystery. After all, they cannot dial up the ABC News on the Web.

I would like to put Duncan and Gouldiae on notice to tell us if their Pelicans start to disappear from down in the far south-east of the country. Clearly there were some there this weekend.