El Nino increases the probability of hotter,drier weather,while the other side of the same climate system,La Nina,more commonly brings rain. However,the effect of El Nino is strongest in winter and spring rather than in summer,and it is stronger west of the Great Dividing Range than on the coast.
Damage to roads at Cooktown and Lions Den in north Queensland after Cyclone Jasper.Credit:Ergon Energy
The wettest day brought 714mm to Mossman in Queensland on December 18 in the wake of ex-tropical Cyclone Jasper.
All eastern state capitals were more humid than the long-term average for January. Sydneyregistered its highest dew point on record.
Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said the last northern summer had brought deadly heatwaves across the northern hemisphere and wildfires in Canada and Hawaii and the Australian summer had brought theseventh mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef.
Scientists monitored 27 sites in the Great Barrier Reef and found moderate to severe coral bleaching.Credit:James Cook University,Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research
“What’s been scary and fascinating is the ocean temperature being so high,” McKenzie said. “Just to put it in perspective,the ocean absorbs heat equivalent to five Hiroshima bombs every second,and[if it were isolated] that would be enough to boil Sydney Harbour every eight minutes,just from the sheer amount of heat going into the system.”
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Summer was a mixed bag for the nation’s farmers.
Heavy rain and flooding damaged oyster farms on the NSW South Coast,preventing harvesting during the lucrative Christmas season. In Queensland,cyclones were devastating for many fruit and vegetable growers,damaging avocado,mango,lychee and banana crops.
But the grape growers of south-eastern Australia are expecting a bumper crop,and anticipate wine exports to China might resume in the coming months.
Matt Dalgleish,executive director for agricultural analysis firm Episode 3,said rain in December and January in eastern Australia had delayed the harvest of grains and seed crops such as wheat,barley and canola,affecting quality rather than yield. But overall,Dalgleish said the season had been better than the hot,dry weather farmers had expected from El Nino.
“By and large,the weather has been reasonably kind through the summer period,” Dalgleish said.
He said the recent bushfires in western Victoria were in an area with few large-scale commercial farms,and the timing was after most crops had been harvested.