Of heatwaves and flooding rains...

NatureBoy has just posted a comment to my blog, which I think is an excellent comment on the current state of affairs.

Here’s a little food for thought… How come there were alarmist predictions of the ‘unprecedented’ heatwave being whipped up into a media frenzy, with colours being added to maps and numbers being fudged to get the point across, yet the impending dilemma of torrential downpours causing massive flooding of towns and deaths up and down the eastern seaboard wasn’t given the same amount of “the sky is falling” prediction and response days out from the event? They can’t predict one disaster and ignore the other, even more destructive ones, surely? If the same time and effort were injected into predicting and planning for ACTUAL weather events, then maybe, just maybe, people might not have died…

Precisely.

To give due credit to the Bureau’s forecasters, the system was difficult to analyse in the short term as it kept slowing down before moving on, however anyone could see a tropical rain depression just inland from the coast was going to bring very heavy rain.  It’s not as if it hasn’t happened before, indeed many times in the past.

And while I don’t necessarily think any amount of accurate predictions will prevent accidental death,  we could certainly be better prepared.   

Unfortunately, our masters in the Bureau, the CSIRO, and the Climate Commission are convinced (and would love to convince us) that global warming will impact Australia with heatwaves and drought.  Remember, we are supposed to be in the new “climate normal” where drought is the norm and dams will not be able to supply enough water for our cities….

Enough of your infatuation with global warming, Bureau bosses, it’s time to get back to your core business of weather forecasting.

Thanks, NatureBoy!

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