How recent rain has changed storage levels

Widespread rain across the states of Victoria and NSW have been a mixed blessing for farmers, but what has it meant for storages?

Recent rain has done little to boost southern storages after a drier than normal spring and subsequent low inflows.

Goulburn Murray Water storage services general manager Alan Shea said there had not been major changes to store levels despite rain across much of the state.

“Since the rainfall in late November, the storage levels at many of Goulburn-Murray Water’s

lakes, dams and reservoirs have increased slightly,” Mr Shea said.

“This is due to both inflows increasing and irrigation demand slowing following the recent

rainfall.”

Mr Shea said variability in inflows during November and December was common, and could range from very dry to wet.

“Inflows then tend to decline throughout summer and into autumn,” he said.

From November 21 until December 5, the amount of water in GMW storages increased by just 1 per cent, but it was enough to turn around a trend of falls in volumes.

Dartmouth Dam, Hume Dam, Lake Eppalock and Lake Buffalo all received below average inflows in November, and irrigation demand was high.

Further north, dam levels have also received a slight boost.

A spokesman for the Murray Darling Basin Authority said Dartmouth Dam fell from 92 per cent in early November to 89 per cent by December 5, and Hume Dam had slipped to 55 per cent in the same period, before lifting to 58 per cent after late November/early December rains.

The spokesman said it was not unusual to have inflows into storage dams in December but they could vary widely.

Dartmouth Dam storage levels are much higher than usual for this time of year, the spokesman said, while Hume Dam storage levels are lower than in recent wet years, but still higher than at this time in years such as 2015, 2018 and 2019.