Adelaide to set record of driest start to the year, BoM predicts

Adelaide is on track for its driest start to a year on record, with large parts of South Australia left with little more than a trickle of rain in the first four months of 2019.

Eileen and Graham Johnson, who have been living in Globe Derby Park for over 40yrs say they have never seen their garden suffer so much. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

• Farmers struggle to find enough hay to feed livestock

Adelaide is on track for its driest start to a year on record, with large parts of South Australia left with little more than a trickle of rain in the first four months of 2019.

Adelaide has recorded 17.8mm of rain so far this year, well below the average of 108.3mm recorded between January and April.

Even with a forecast of rain on Friday, the West Tce station is likely to report the driest first four months of a year, breaking the current record of 19.2mm set in 1888.

The South Para Reservoir. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Meanwhile, other parts of South Australia, such as the Eyre Peninsula and Yorke Peninsula, have received less than 15 per cent of the average rainfall in the first four months of the year.

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) meteorologist Dr Paul Bierman said delayed and weak tropical activity over northern Australia was the reason behind the big dry.

While South Australia is historically dry during the first few months of the year, Dr Bierman said rainfall this year had been particularly low given the lack of moisture carried through from monsoons in the northern parts of the country.

While showers are on the cards for Thursday or Friday, Dr Bierman said there was “low prospect” of receiving enough rain to cross the 19.2mm mark.

“Adelaide is on track to having the driest start to the year,” he said.

The Adelaide CBD had its fourth-longest dry spell of 51 days earlier this year, before the West Tce station finally recorded its first drop of rain this year on February 9.

South Australia’s total rainfall in March was 64 per cent lower than average, with the only exception to the dry spell being the northeast pastoral district which recorded four times its usual rainfall.

Elsewhere the soil remains dry, with Marree in the Far North receiving just 3.4mm so far this year, well below its four-month average of 65.6mm.

Cleve had only 9.2mm as of yesterday, compared to an average of 89mm between January and April, while about 4.8mm of rain has fallen at Port Vincent in the Yorke Peninsula, well below its average of 71.6mm.

Dr Bierman said the next three months’ outlook would be dry until cold fronts from the Southern Ocean start moving northwards around July or August.

Rain levels cropped for web

“Traditionally we are expecting more rain in May than April but the climate outlook shows we are expecting drier than average for the next three months,” he said.

The state’s reservoir holdings are at 43 per cent, or 84.7 gigalitres, compared to 51 per cent at the same time last year.

But an SA Water spokesman said there were no plans to increase production from the Adelaide Desalination Plant and that South Australia’s water supply remained “secure”.

“Total reservoir levels are currently sitting at around 43 per cent, which is not unusual for this time of the year, and provides room to store the rains which typically fall over the Mount Lofty Ranges catchments in late winter and spring,” the spokesman said.

The desalination plant is forecast to produce 5.3GL this financial year, in line with previous years.