OPEN Letter To The Bureau Of Meteorology : Climate Extremes – The “Federation Drought” 1895-1902

THE Federation Drought - Open Letter To BoM - CLIMATISM

THE Murray River (Australia’s longest) was dry for six months in 1902.


TO whom it may concern,

CC: Josh Frydenberg (Australian Minister for the Environment & Energy)

Last year I contacted you in regards to updating 7 years of missing tropical cyclone data on the BoM record.

August 16, 2017

Dear BoM,

I have been a keen observer of weather and climate for well over a climate point (42 years)!

The chaotic system of climate and “climate change” is ever fascinating. Though, today the ‘chaos’ has been replaced by an unhealthy polarization of “the science”, all too often determined by belief, politics and ideology. Sadly, dogma has trumped empirical evidence, corrupting the scientific method.

That said, I am seeking from you an updated version of the cyclone trends graph which ends at 2011. The BoM site has excellent data up to 2017 to complete the series. Is there a reason why the data has not been translated to the current graph? I would be happy to work on getting it up to date if resources are limited!

As a start, there is a written record from 2012-2015 here: http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/index.shtml

However, this record does not quite match the said graph 1969 – 2011. Methodology for what qualifies the graphed record would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jamie Spry (Melbourne, Australia)

Graph showing the number of severe and non-severe tropical cyclones from 1970–2011 which have occurred in the Australian region. Severe tropical cyclones are those which show a minimum

Graph showing the number of severe and non-severe tropical cyclones from 1970–2011 which have occurred in the Australian region. Severe tropical cyclones are those which show a minimum central pressure less than 970 hPa.

OPEN Letter To The Bureau Of Meteorology – Tropical Cyclone Trends | Climatism

TO your credit, communication was swift and missing data promptly updated to 2016/17:

Graph showing the number of severe and non-severe tropical cyclones from 1970-2017 which have occurred in the Australian region. Severe tropical cyclones are shown here as those with a m

Graph showing the number of severe and non-severe tropical cyclones from 1970-2017 which have occurred in the Australian region. Severe tropical cyclones are shown here as those with a minimum central pressure less than 970 hPa.

*

I write to you today seeking access to valuable historical information you once had on your website pertaining to historical “extremes”, namely the devastating 7 year “Federation Drought” 1895-1902…

THE page is no longer available:

BOM – Australian Climate Extremes-Drought

Screen Shot 2018-08-05 at 7.41.20 am

Bureau of Meteorology – The page you requested was not found on this server

*

ORIGINAL content of Australia’s important climate change history has been thankfully saved in the WayBackMachine and sent to me by Apafarkas Agmánd:

Screen Shot 2018-08-05 at 7.44.23 am

BOM – Australian Climate Extremes (WayBackMachine)

Drought. The word evokes images of barren fields, dying stock, and water holes and reservoirs drying to cracked mud. Shrivelled hopes, failed crops, and often economic ruin are its trademarks.

Drought is also part and parcel of life in Australia, particularly in the marginal areas away from the better-watered coasts and ranges. drought near GunnedahOf all the climatic phenomena to afflict Australia, drought is probably the most economically costly: major droughts such as that of 1982/83 can have a major impact on the national economy. Moreover, apart from crop failure and stock losses, droughts set the scene for other disastrous phenomena, such as fires, dust-storms, and general land degradation.

Denuded earth and dry watercourses during drought near Gunnedah, in the normally well-watered Namoi Valley region of New South Wales (photo courtesy of the NSW Dept of Land and Water Conservation).

Why is Australia drought prone?

Australia is prone to drought because of its geography. Our continent sits more or less astride the latitudes of the subtropical high pressure belt, an area of sinking, dry, stable air and usually clear skies. The far north and south of the country come under the influence of reasonably regular rain-bearing disturbances for at least part of the year, and the east coast is watered reasonably well by moisture from the Tasman and Coral Seas. However over most of the country rainfall is not only low, but highly erratic.

Many, but by no means all, droughts over eastern and northern Australia accompany the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon, which typically lasts about a year, as in 1982/83. Droughts in the western areas and over much of the interior normally have different causes. Nevertheless, on some occasions (such as 1914 and 1994) El Niño-related droughts may extend across virtually the entire country. On such occasions, the economic and livestock losses are exacerbated

hand-feeding sheep in NSWHand-feeding sheep in western New South Wales during the extended drought in Queensland and New South Wales during the 1990s
(photo c/o the Fairfax Photo Library).

Long-term droughts

Over much of the country, droughts can extend over several years, relieved only by brief, transitory rains. Indeed, probably the most damaging type of drought is when one or two very dry years follow several years of generally below-average rainfall. The “Federation drought” of the late 1890s through 1902 is an example, as is the more recent 1991-95 drought in Queensland, northern New South Wales and parts of central Australia. Over still longer time-scales, Australia’s rainfall history features several periods of a decade or longer that seem to have been distinctly “drought prone”. For instance, the mid to late 1920s and the 1930s were a period of generally low rainfall over most of the country, continuing through most of the 1940s over the eastern states. A similar dry spell occurred in the 1960s over central and eastern Australia. During these low rainfall periods, not every year is dry; it is just that rainfall in most years is below the long-term average, and there are often runs of years with recurrent drought. Thus in the late 1930s-40s major droughts occurred over eastern Australia in 1937-38, 1940-41, and 1943-45.

The 1990s saw formal Government acknowledgement that drought is part of the natural variability of the Australian climate, with drought relief for farmers and agricultural communities being restricted to times of so-called “exceptional circumstances”. In other words, the agricultural sector was expected to cope with the occasional drought, and relief would be available only for droughts of unusual length or severity.

BOM – Australian Climate Extremes (WayBackMachine)

*

AS Eastern Australia suffers through another awful drought, it is important that the public is educated into the causes of long-term drought such that appropriate action can be taken, as noted by the Australian Government in the 1990’s, The 1990s saw formal Government acknowledgement that drought is part of the natural variability of the Australian climate, with drought relief for farmers and agricultural communities being restricted to times of so-called “exceptional circumstances”

EDUCATION and understanding of the “land of sweeping plains,/Of ragged mountain ranges,/Of droughts and flooding rains.”[2] helps to eliminate spurious claims of human-induced climate change as the cause of drought, all-too-often used by the mainstream media to push a political agenda or ideology.

SUCH wistful activism encouraging a misallocation of funds in a vain attempt to “stop” climate change with precious public money awarded to wind farm, solar panel corporations and power companies, rather than fund drought mitigation schemes (dams) and to aid farmers through tedious times that will always occur naturally, regardless of Australia or the world’s carbon dioxide output.

*

A CARBON TAX in 1789 would not have prevented centuries of drought and flood in Australia:

screenhunter_07-jun-08-21-42

13 Oct 1868 – THE CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA.

screenhunter_457-apr-14-06-36

13 Oct 1868 – THE CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA.

screenhunter_455-apr-14-06-32

13 Oct 1868 – THE CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA.

screenhunter_456-apr-14-06-36

13 Oct 1868 – THE CLIMATE OF AUSTRALIA.

WIND farms, solar panels and or giant batteries would not have prevented Australia’s horrific 7 year Federation Drought 1895-1902 that killed 40% of all livestock in Australia and destroyed the wheat crop…

The “Federation Drought”, 1895-1902

Many of Australia’s worst droughts occur when one or two very dry years follow several years of generally below average rainfall. Such was the case in the so-called “Federation drought”, which began in the mid 1890s and reached its devastating climax in late 1901 and 1902.

The five years leading up to Federation (January 1901) saw intermittent dry spells over most of the country, particularly in 1897 and 1899; in most of Queensland, dry conditions were virtually unbroken from 1897. Most other parts of the country had reasonable rain in 1900 and early 1901, but with the coming of spring 1901 very dry weather set in across eastern Australia. By February 1902 concerns were expressed about Sydney’s water supply, and the New South Wales Government declared 26 February a day of “humiliation and prayer” for rain in that state. Similar declarations were made in Queensland in April and Victoria in September, as the drought worsened.

Despite the pleas for divine intervention, things only got worse. Though there was some winter-spring rain in Victoria and NSW, cold weather nullified its usefulness. In Queensland, enormous sheep and cattle losses were being reported by August. On some far western properties, cattle numbers plummeted from tens of thousands to mere hundreds. Rivers in western Queensland dried up; at Bourke, the Darling River virtually ran dry. Further south, towns near the Murray River such as Mildura, Balranald and Deniliquin – at that time dependent on the river for transport – suffered badly. The Australian wheat crop was all but lost, with close to the lowest yields of the century.

BOM – Australian Climate Extremes-Drought

THE Murray River (Australia’s longest) was dry for six months in 1902.

Murray river drought

The Murray River (Australia’s longest) was dry for six months in 1902.

*

TONY HELLER of Real Science sums up, with his usual satire, the natural fluctuations of Australia’s harsh environment…

From 1896 to 1902, the worst drought in Australia’s history is believed to have killed half of the sheep population. It was also a period of both record heat and cold. April, 1902 was the driest month of the twentieth century.

1902

1902 – Interactive: 100 years of drought in Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

This drought followed on the heels of extremely heavy rainfall in the late 1880s and early 1990s, proving once again that the climate was very comfortable and stable when CO2 was below 350 ppm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_Drought

We need to spend trillions of dollars so we can pretend to be trying to make the climate just like some people imagine it used to be.

Shock News : Drought Kills Half Of The Sheep In Australia | Real Science

*

GUIDANCE on where to find information on the public’s BoM website pertaining to Australia’s important climate and weather history would be greatly appreciated.

LOOK forward to your reply!

Thanks and Regards,

Jamie Spry (Melbourne, Australia)

@JWSpry

@ClimatismBlog

•••

UPDATE

EXCELLENT interactive, historical perspective of drought in Australia from 1900 – 2013:

Interactive - 100 years of drought in Australia - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Interactive: 100 years of drought in Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

CLICK >> Interactive: 100 years of drought in Australia – ABC News

*

THE FULL SERIES (1900 – 2018)

IMG_2779.JPG

Australian rainfall deciles since 1900

•••

SEE Also :

Related :


2 Comments on “OPEN Letter To The Bureau Of Meteorology : Climate Extremes – The “Federation Drought” 1895-1902”

  1. OPEN Letter To The Bureau Of Meteorology : Climate Extremes – The “Federation Drought” 1895-1902 | My Blog says:

    […] via OPEN Letter To The Bureau Of Meteorology : Climate Extremes – The “Federation Drought” 189… […]

    Like

  2. Bretto says:

    I clicked on the waybackmachine link which opens up ok but when you click on the federation drought link I get a box covering the info.

    Another source can be found here via the National Library of Australia:

    https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/wayback/20090330051442/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/96122/20090317-1643/www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/c20thc/drought.html

    Like


Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.