Uluru drenched by record September rain

A deluge in the desert has brought the rare sight of Uluru cascading with waterfalls, desert flowers in bloom and animals coming out to feed and drink.

The nearby Yulara Airport weather station recorded 31.6 millimetres of rain by 9am on Tuesday to mark the area’s wettest September day. A further 6.8 millimetres of rain fell by 9am on Wednesday. The weather bureau says the skies have now cleared.

Meteorologist Jessica Lingard at the Bureau of Meteorology said Yulara had been open for 37 years and its highest daily recorded rainfall was 104mm during the wet season in February 2000.

It rained for 2.3 days on average every September, Lingard said, but this week’s event was a September record for the station by volume.

“They do have these heavier rainfall events, especially when we get a cloud band developing through the area,” Lingard said.

“On Saturday, we saw some heavy rainfall totals through northern parts of WA through the Pilbara and the Kimberley districts there, and then slowly, this rain band has been moving eastward.”

The rain was now moving towards south-western Queensland, Lingard said, and the expected rain and cold front for NSW — already hitting Victoria — were separate weather systems. She said there was no sign that climatic rainfall patterns at Uluru were changing.

The Parks Australia website says the rain on Uluru brings out different colours on the rock – “from dark burgundy and shining silver to even black” – and causes desert plants to bloom. Birds shower in the rain and nocturnal animals venture out during the day to drink.

“Because rainfall in the region is so erratic, animals and plants have evolved ways of conserving water by avoiding, tolerating or controlling extremes of heat,” the site says.

“Desert animals rely on opportunistic breeding and feeding, and rains bring a frenzy of activity to replenish and reproduce.”

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