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Sydney experiences wettest 12 months on file with 2.2 meters of rain in 279 days

A mixture of moist ocean climate cycles, low strain techniques and local weather change have mixed to make 2022 Sydney’s wettest 12 months on file


Setting


October 7, 2022

By Alice Klein

A woman walks in front of the Opera House as it rains in Sydney on October 6, 2022. (Photo by Muhammad FAROOQ / AFP) (Photo by MUHAMMAD FAROOQ/AFP via Getty Images)

Sydney was inundated with unprecedented quantities of rain in 2022

MOHAMED FAROOQ/AFP through Getty Photos

This 12 months is already Sydney’s wettest 12 months on file, with over 2.2 meters of rain falling since January.

Beforehand, Sydney’s wettest 12 months was 1950, when the overall annual rainfall was 2,194 metres. This 12 months’s rainfall exceeded that determine round 1 p.m. on October 6.

In a mean 12 months, Sydney receives solely about 1.2 meters of rain.

With almost 1 / 4 of the 12 months remaining and moist circumstances set to proceed, 2022 is ready to be by far the wettest 12 months on file for Sydney, in accordance with Milton Speer at Sydney College of Expertise.

There are a number of explanation why it has been so moist, he says. The primary is that for the third 12 months in a row, Australia’s east coast is experiencing a La Niña local weather cycle, which pulls moist onshore winds from the Pacific Ocean.

One other is that there have been a sequence of low-pressure troughs related to low-pressure techniques that “concentrated rain for lengthy durations over Sydney and different components of the coast,” says Speer.

Moreover, a climate cycle referred to as the Indian Ocean Dipole that impacts nations across the Indian Ocean, together with Australia, has lately entered its detrimental section, additional enhancing Sydney’s rainfall.

Lastly, local weather change can exacerbate moist circumstances by rising sea floor temperatures, so there’s extra evaporation and extra moisture within the air to fall again as rain, Speer says.

The deluge has already brought about repeated flooding in Sydney, together with areas close to the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, the place residents have been evacuated 4 occasions this 12 months.

The floods broken properties, outlets and infrastructure, and 4 folks drowned.

Heavy rain is predicted to proceed in Sydney and different components of NSW over the following few days, with flood warnings in place for 50 areas.

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