With the La Niña that has been forecasted for the past three wet seasons, many locals believe that we missed out. While we may have missed out locally, many parts of Australia had a successful La Niña season.
What is a La Niña? It is where the water is cooler on the southern American part of the Pacific Ocean and is warmer in the Northern Australasian parts of the Pacific Ocean. As the water evaporates, it causes rain, which causes above average rainfall throughout a season. Sometimes a lot at once which can cause flash flooding.
This is what was experienced throughout Qld, NT and Northern WA over the past three wet seasons. The southern areas of Qld near Gympie experienced floods last season which had devastating affects and cut off highways and railways to Central and North Qld.
While we did miss out from the flooding affects and above average rainfall of La Niña, other parts of Australia didn’t. BoM’s La Niña warning was country wide. Not locally.
We are now moving to an El Niño phase. Which then means opposite of La Niña. Below average rainfall. Possibility of droughts, bush fires and severe thunderstorms. This is currently forecast to last for the next wet season or two.
On the bright side, Mackay and the Whitsundays can sometimes be in the best spot as we are likely to get some rain and some thunderstorms every time the wet season comes around.
Remember for all your local, accurate and up to date weather info to follow L&K Mackay Severe Weather on Facebook.
Contributed by Liam Leonard from L&K Mackay Mackay Severe Weather
