Weather

Recent rain and wild weather has prompted the Invasive Species Council to call on residents of northern NSW to be on alert for Fire Ants following concerns the weather could accelerate the spread of the invasive pest ... The Invasive Species Council is concerned that Fire Ants can form rafts during flood events or high rain, or stowaway in freight or soil, increasing their spread into NSW.

Last Wednesday saw a mammoth amount of rainfall and winds across the district including Yanac, Diapur and Boyeo. Brett Wheaton at Yanac South measured 86mm and said there was a lot of flooding, including Yanac Creek and the swamp was filled.

For an organisation that invests a considerable portion of their half a billion dollar budget predicting what’s going to happen in 100 years’ time, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has fallen short on the all-important, short term forecasts ... Farmers want less climate change lecturing on the doomsday predictions of global warming, and more lectures on the complexity of the dynamic system that actually influences the day to day, week to week, and month to month rain and temperature that impacts their annual production.

Predictions of the nation’s weather holds tremendous weight. In September, the BOM’s El Nino predictions and the subsequent media hysteria saw cattle and sheep markets collapse as growers responded to the best available computer modelling ... the monthly rainfall predictions took until January 3 to predict a wetter than average month.

On New Years Eve storm cells built up between Clifton and Allora with the most damage happening in Allora. On the corner of Forde and Warwick Streets two huge old gumtrees were torn out of the ground, roots and all.

Will Hunter. Residents on West Terrace, Kadina, are pleading with Copper Coast Council for improvements to surrounding stormwater facilities before further rain. Two recent events, including almost 98 millimetres of rain in Kadina over four days at the start of December, have put residents on flood watch.

In response to the extreme bushfire season of 2019-2020, the Royal Commission made 15 recommendations. The recommendations were released in October 2020. The 15 recommendations fell under Federal Government responsibility. They have all been implemented and completed.

In a sudden storm several trees fell down on the Summerland Way at Leeville at 1.30pm, Saturday December 16. Emergency services were called to reports of a crash on the roadway near Crawford Road.

Recent flash flooding in Naracoorte was the result of a new two-day rainfall record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The official two-day rainfall total in the 48 hours to 9am on November 25 was 117.8 mm. “(It) is not only a new November record, but also an annual record in the bureau observations at Naracoorte – current and former site – since 1884.”

Andrew Smith, Rural Bank Head of Agribusiness Development said: “As was the case for 2023, the three key themes that will impact Australian agriculture in the first half of 2024 continue to be seasonal conditions, trade conditions and economic headwinds, but looking to the upside, a more favourable economic environment is expected to begin supporting agricultural markets in the back half of 2024."

Highest temperature was 43.8C on Saturday 11th compared to the record of 45.4C on the 29th in 2012 ... November rain was 28.4mm ... Highest November rain was 95.4mm in 1992 ... The river has remained reasonably steady a with current level of 0.85 metres and a flow of 769 ML/day, exactly the same as reported last month.

This World Soil Day, Kellanova ANZ, parent company of Kellogg’s, is shining a light on how farmers are preparing for the upcoming El Niño summer season, with soil health at the very heart ... New research reveals that 9 in 10 Aussie farmers already have a plan in place to deal with drier weather; Almost a third are confident the practices they use will help them prepare for potential drought.

Suncorp Group and Natural Hazards Research Australia have released a discussion paper to help drive a national conversation on giving communities at high-risk of being repeatably impacted by extreme weather the opportunity to be relocated out of harm’s way.  The discussion paper was developed out of a roundtable held in Canberra...

The weekend of 4/5 November 2023 was eerily similar to my experiences as a 20 year old fire-fighter at the disastrous 1961 Dwellingup fire, which burnt 200000 hectares of forest and destroyed several towns ... Multiple lightning strikes, dry, heavy fuels and strong winds eventually overwhelmed all fire-fighting efforts.

"Our connected solution, PestConnect, collates and analyses emerging trends through millions of data points crunched by machine learning algorithms, identifying patterns and correlations that human observation alone might miss, which enables us to map and predict pest activity more effectively and then control pest activity sustainably": Andrew Stone, Rentokil Initial MD.

Australian farmers are requesting donated hay at a phenomenal rate as drought and bushfire conditions bite ... Queensland cattle producer Betty Johnson, of Biggenden, this month received hay from Rural Aid ... “We’ve had no rain at all since about January which means that I’ve been feeding stock for ages. If you’re feeding stock, it costs money.”

Thanks to photographer extraordinaire Rob Leeson for this great photo of Newstead farmer Tony Butler, and Kelpie Mac, in a paddock of wheat. In recent weeks, the local region has received around 40mm of rain, and this has been a bonus for farmers.

Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Murray Watt and Victorian Minister for Agriculture Ros Spence announced the Drought Resilience Plans for the Gippsland, Goulburn and Wimmera Southern Mallee regions have been finalised.  These are the first of nine regional communities across the state to develop community-led Regional Drought Resilience Plans through the Future Drought Fund’s Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program, jointly funded by the Albanese and Allan Governments.

The planned Gardens of the Downs tour for Greenmount and Vale View has been altered due to the lack of rain. The three gardens at Greenmount will no longer be open for viewing, although the garden of Tonia and Paul Grundy at Vale View will still be open ... Ponder life next to the raked dry garden bed or delight in the small waterfall and stream that flows to a scenic pond with water lilies in bloom.