Green drought

Green drought · Posted by G M Fude, 12-25-2007, 10:42 PM

We're still suffering this drought that has been going in some parts of Australia (e.g. Melbourne) since 1997. Based on scientific data like tree rings and geology it is the worst for a thousand years.

Yet, we've had a lot of rain in the past fortnight so the countryside is quite green, as are the lawns and gardens in the city. Previous droughts I've lived through --1969 and 1982 -- everything looked dead. This one may not be quite so dry as those ones which lasted maybe 18 months, but now it just goes on and on and on... Ten years and counting.

I drove past one of Melbourne's reservoirs, Maroondah, yesterday. According to the government website it is only 30% full; it must be relatively shallow, as you might see from the photo it does not look to be 70% below capacity. Weather was nice for Christmas Day, too.

**roentarre** · 12-25-2007, 11:32 PM

That has more water than the last time I visited the place.

A great weather for outing for sure and that is a colourful shot (I usually end up having blurred shot of the reservoir myself)

G M Fude · 12-25-2007, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by roentarre

That has more water than the last time I visited the place.

That's right, I thought the same thing. So I logged onto Melbourne Water to get the level and almost fell off my chair. That's 29.4 percent full?! (at 20th December, anyway).

I also took a shot with a circular polarizer and the colour looked dreadful. I guess the sun was at the wrong angle, it was just before 9 in the morning.

JCSullivan · 12-26-2007, 11:09 AM

I drove past one of Melbourne's reservoirs, Maroondah, yesterday. According to the government website it is only 30% full; it must be relatively shallow, as you might see from the photo it does not look to be 70% below capacity. Weather was nice for Christmas Day, too.

Darn it!! No one ever showed me this beautiful part of Melbourne when I was there. Guess I was visiting the wrong people.

Mechan1k · 12-27-2007, 07:01 AM

The drought has been a bad one ... although it does look like it has been turning of recent ... and there does seem to be more follow-up rains in the way as well.

Fingers crossed.

It's very green at home at the moment ... and the horses can't keep up with the amount of grass growing in the paddocks at the moment.

12 months ago we didn't have one blade of grass on our property ... and we were having a hard time getting hay in from anywhere to feed them ... go figure.