Extreme weather

THE July 27 Courier contained a letter by Harold Gallasch, which commenced with the statement: “The Bureau of Meteorology Queensland has noted that the floods on the east coast of Australia are not as a result of any ‘global warming’…”.

I thought, that’s an interesting statement from a BOM, so I did some research. Hey presto, the first reference I found was a May 2022 piece from Sky News which quoted an Australian BOM report that the floods were “linked to a trend towards high-intensity, short-duration rainfall events as part of unprecedented weather conditions in Queensland and NSW” which “may be exacerbated by global warming”.

The Sky News article, which quoted Sky News Australia’s senior meteorologist, went on to say that 42 locations across Queensland and NSW broke daily rain records for February or March during the extreme rain events.

The ABC also discussed that May 2022 report, noting, among many other facts, that: “In parts of northern NSW, floodwaters easily broke previous record peaks, some dating back more than 100 years” and that: “A warmer atmosphere was able to hold more moisture, leading to heavier rain.” The ABC also quoted the University of Melbourne’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes: “The north of Australia is getting wetter and the south drier” and “It is expected that long-term climate change will result in greater climate variability with more intense extreme events than in the past.”

CSIRO research also shows that Australia is likely to become warmer over the coming decades, with a reduction in average annual rainfall in the south and east and, in contrast, uncertain average annual rainfall projections for northern Australia.

“CSIRO research has shown a direct relationship between increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and an increase in strong El Nino and La Nina events.”

The point of my letter is that people are entitled to their opinions, but not to try and give the impression that our peak scientific bodies support their views when they do not. That’s all – a simple point, but an important one.

Myrana Wahlqvist, Mt Barker