Worst drought ever

[Prospector]

It might give that record of 47 point something a shake.

I do remember 45; that was in the seventies, and the speakers in my then boyfriend's car melted....

 

[prawn_86]

Last xmas (2007) it was 47 about three days straight where we were camping.

Check the travel forum for some pics

 

[drsmith]

I do remember 45; that was in the seventies, and the speakers in my then boyfriend's car melted....

Found it. 46.1 in January 1939.

http://209.85.175.132/search?q=cach...st+ever+temperature"&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au

It could give that a very nasty shake.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Here's a chart I created today showing Hume Dam levels since 1997.

You have to beg the question why the Authority's haven't got a release limit of down to say, 20%? Following the big top-up in 2000 would have been an opportune time to plan for that and help guarantee a reasonable backup level in the case of extended periods of reduced rainfall IMO.

If they had used that limit over the past 6 years or so, we wouldn't now be facing less than 3% (again) by as early as end of next week. Of course, this would have meant some pain for irrigators with reduced allocations.

Would that have been "too much to bear"? Would the Authority be legally liable to foot the bill for allocations it does not meet?

 

[Happy]

I just have a thought that we should desalinate water as crazy and pump it to any dry area.

Why one might ask?

Well, because we expect sea level to rise 1, 5 or even 10 metres in this century alone, on top of that sea water is getting diluted and sea currents apparently seem to be closely related to salt content.

This way we could prevent or reduce 2 disasters in one.

 

[derty]

I just have a thought that we should desalinate water as crazy and pump it to any dry area.

Why one might ask?

Well, because we expect sea level to rise 1, 5 or even 10 metres in this century alone, on top of that sea water is getting diluted and sea currents apparently seem to be closely related to salt content.

This way we could prevent or reduce 2 disasters in one.

This is probably one of those ideas that is easier said than put into practice Happy. The volume of the ocean is immense when compared to the volume of fresh water on land. I don't think desal plants would be able to lower the sea levels noticeably and where are you going to get he energy to run these the plants? Also the rivers run back to the sea.

Though, if you are really serious, you might want to head down to you local beach with a straw and make a start :

 

[Happy]

Though, if you are really serious, you might want to head down to you local beach with a straw and make a start :

No kidding, I took few bottles of water for my garden patch with celery.
Used it diluted as celery need salt, (and you don't have to take it with grain of salt )

 

[Smurf1976]

Here's a chart I created today showing Hume Dam levels since 1997.

You have to beg the question why the Authority's haven't got a release limit of down to say, 20%? Following the big top-up in 2000 would have been an opportune time to plan for that and help guarantee a reasonable backup level in the case of extended periods of reduced rainfall IMO.

If they had used that limit over the past 6 years or so, we wouldn't now be facing less than 3% (again) by as early as end of next week. Of course, this would have meant some pain for irrigators with reduced allocations.

Would that have been "too much to bear"? Would the Authority be legally liable to foot the bill for allocations it does not meet?

There's a 100% level there in 2000 that was presumably associated with spill, the ulitmate sin in water storage management since it's total waste.

Ideally you want to never have storage at zero and you never want it completely full either. If either event occurs then either (1) the storage is too small relative to inflows or (2) management is deficient in that the storage was maintained at a level that is too high to avoid spill. Looking at the chart, the storage doesn't really seem big enough but there's Dartmouth and the Snowy upstream which does offset that to a significant extent.

You'd have to look at combined Dartmouth, Hume and Snowy scheme storages to get an accurate picture of the overall situation. Ideally you'd want to have the one entity controlling the whole lot as well which unfortunately isn't the case - there's no guarantee that Snowy release will be timed to suit conditions at Hume to maximise overall resource efficiency.

Looking at another very large water storage scheme, Hydro Tasmania, here's some figures:

Lowest on record: 14% in 1968

Highest on record: 100% in 1976 due to several years of very high rainfall.

Following the 1976 event, the third Miena dam at Great Lake (the largest system storage) was raised to increase capacity of that storage by about one third so as to avoid future 100% storage incidents. That was completed in 1983 amidst severe drought after which storage stood at 30% and has never filled to its new capacity (and in theory never will).

Also in late 1977 the Gordon scheme, which comprises about 30% of total system storage, commenced operation.

Storage remained in the 30 - 50% range through the 1980's before dipping to 22% in 1990 and 1991. Those figures are somewhat "artificial" due to the use of oil-fired generation to maintain storage levels, particularly during the 89-90 and 90-91 Summers. Without that, total storage would have been around 5% by 1991.

Storage increased from 22% in 1991 to 86% by late 1997. Rainfall was high, demand fell nearly 7% from 1991 to 1996 due to the general economic recession and two new schemes had come online in 1992 and 1994. Apart from a test run, there was no non-hydro generation during this period.

Since 1997 storage declined at first slowly and then more rapidly as load increased above system capacity and rainfall declined. Non-hydro generation was minimised (at the expense of depleting water storages more rapidly given the load situation) until gas became available in late 2002, the idea being to subsequently recover storages through maximum use of gas-fired generation which is far cheaper than oil. Then the drought arrived and thus far there has been no real recovery of storage, presently at about 25%, despite heavy running of gas-fired generation.

Weekly data for the headwater storages is publicly available here. http://www.hydro.com.au/storages/storage summary.xls

Simplified system map (omits inflows downstream of the headwater storages) and current % storage levels are here, updated weekly. http://www.hydro.com.au/storages/storage.pdf

Note that these figures exclude all non-headwater storages (there's a lot...) and also Lake Margaret which was decommissioned in 2006 (to be recommissioned later in 2009 when the replacement pipe is completed).

 

[Aussiejeff]

I do remember 45; that was in the seventies, and the speakers in my then boyfriend's car melted....

This made me crack up.... Oh Adelaide indeed...

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/the-murray-has-done-a-nile-oh-widowed-adelaide-20090419-abeo.html

 

[Prospector]

Well thats a pretty crap article. Why do people in Victoria have such a chip on their shoulder and feel the need to write such articles? Like Melbourne's Lord Mayor. Maybe a dry river is better than a sewer river like the Yarra.

 

[drsmith]

I found it rather amusing.

I thrill at the thought of a man wearing a pink safari suit slapping the face of a fundamentalist hillbilly with a gauntlet. And the idea of Joh and Donny going mano e mano with parliamentary maces for the honour of their states and control of the swirling brown megalitres excites me beyond telling.

 

[Prospector]

Shame it wasnt a pink safari suit though! Still, never let facts get in the way of a good story.

 

[drsmith]

Perhaps he confused it with the shorts.

http://www.history.sa.gov.au/history/object of the month.htm.html

 

[Aussiejeff]

Hooray! A new interactive website to play wid!

http://www.mdba.gov.au/water/waterinstorage/southern/uppermurray#

Check out the .pdf at bottom of page.

Victorian sector is in appalling shape. Look at all those water balance deficit figures!! Yikes!

Also, 68GL left in Hume (2%), of which 30GL is unuseable. So, 1% left, folks.

It is getting on the nose, the lower down it goes,
with lots of chlorination smell as well....

We have been using a small electric distiller for ages to clean it up for drinking. Works fine but the black, stinking sludge left behind after a dozen distillation runs is *frightening* .

 

[Prospector]

At last it is raining in Adelaide and we may get 50mls in the next three days, which is more than double what we have had since January 1. Hopefully it will pass through to Victoria.

Folklore says that if it is raining on Anzac Day then we are in for a good winter. Usually heralds the start of the Autumn rains. I think last year it was actually hot! Bad luck for the diggers but we so need the rain....

 

[PeterJ]

Hi Prospector
I am also enjoying this steady rain we are having atm
Hopefully Mother Nature will provide us with enough
for the year

we all know we will die of thirst otherwise

Peter

 

[Prospector]

Hi Prospector
I am also enjoying this steady rain we are having atm
Hopefully Mother Nature will provide us with enough
for the year

we all know we will die of thirst otherwise

Peter

I am betting Mikey is down on his knees praying for it. Why oh why dont they recycle storm water - that is more than enough for Adelaides water needs. As if the River Murray isnt full of storm water anyway? And what do they think the reservoir run off's are - stormwater!

 

[MrBurns]

Errrrrr................sorry I thought this thread was about sex.....

 

[PeterJ]

Mr Burns .. of course it is

at least we know what they have been doing in Parliament House
for the last few years apart from ruining this state financially

a rain dance !

well it worked today

Peter

 

[drsmith]

Errrrrr................sorry I thought this thread was about sex.....

Use your imagination.

A growing cumulonimbus cloud can be considered an erection of convection.