September 2010 rainfall for Murray Darling Basin (NSW)
Following on from the previous post, September rainfall for inland New South Wales continues to be positive which is helping to remove the short term deficits. It is noted that much of the rainfall fell during the first half of the month while the second half was relatively dry. Still rainfall was either average or above average and the trend for 2010 when compared to 2009 is positive.
Rainfall continues to recover for country New South Wales with all centres in the table (attached) recording from 23% to 62% above average falls to the end of September 2010.
A significant turnaround has occurred at Hume Reservoir on the Murray River. At the beginning of September, the reservoir was just on 50% capacity. As at 2 October, this had jumped to 81.25%, a massive rise of 949,375 megalitres. Flooding rains in the upper Murray catchment has been captured by the dam during the month for storage. At the same time in 2009, the dam was at 33% capacity.
I have prepared a rainfall analysis using data from 8 centres across country NSW showing rainfall for September. The raw data is sourced from Weatherzone dated 2/10/2010.
Harley Pearman