Blame it on El Nina

by Bob Wonders on 4 Nov 2010 When I was undergoing my journalism cadetship, which was, I must admit, more than a few years ago, I was always taught never write about the weather unless you’re writing for a daily publication.

The theory was that if writing for, say, a monthly publication, even a fortnightly one for that matter, making a story out of weather was useless simply because people generally have very poor memories when it comes to weather conditions.

Well, I doubt anyone living along Australia’s eastern seaboard will have any trouble remembering the spring weather of 2010.

Queensland experienced the wettest September in the State’s history; the nation, Australia, its wettest October since records have been kept and the start of November has been amazing rain-wise

Of course, there is a good side; dams and catchment areas are the healthiest they have been in years and farmers, depending on their crops, are generally smiling.

However, as always there’s a downside and the consistent rain has played havoc with the recreational boating industry, with tourism and numerous other leisure-related businesses.

Marinas are deserted, fuel sales at an all-time low, fishing boat charter operators are sitting on their hands while sales staff in marine dealerships look wistfully towards their doors hoping for a customer to make a rare appearance.

As a boat broker said to me a while back, 'It’s mighty hard trying to sell a boat to someone standing under an umbrella.'

So who (or what?) is La Nina?

According to Australia’s leading meteorologists, La Nina is 'an event' which delivers moist air flows across the vast Pacific Ocean, the end result meaning heavy rainfall delivered to the coastal regions.

A weather map on Thursday, November 3, showed a bank of rain-bearing cloud cover stretching from Cairns, in Far North Queensland, all the way down to the Queensland-NSW border (about 1700 kilometres by road), but only a 100 kilometres or so inland. Overnight down on Lake Macquarie there has been a significant rain event with 83mm of rain in three hours at the Sail-World office

Despite earlier forecasts that La Nina would soon disappear, the experts are now tipping it will hang around until well into 2011 and to expect a summer of storms and driving rain.

Some weather forecasters have even predicted up to six cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons, call them what you will) could lash the Queensland coast during the 2010/2011 summer.

Incidentally, the term ‘La Nina’ is Spanish and it translates in English to 'the girl-child'; I can absolutely guarantee it has been called far worse names along Australia’s coastline.