November 2016 State of the Environment
November 2016
It’s fitting we’re kicking off our recreational water quality report because there’s a fair chance you were looking for somewhere to cool your cuddly bits. November brought us the first day post winter we cracked the 30°C mark. A spring-fest of westerlies fired up the month’s temperatures and sucked humidity from the air. We had ample rain to start spring, middling amounts during the middle of spring and then we whimpered our way to its end. November rain was well below normal, apart from the far north-western reaches of the region. We now have a good smattering of below normal levels in our river flows report and the same can be said for groundwater levels. Soil moisture is still around normal in most places but it certainly practised it’s dive moves during month. For the most part it was safe to swim – tsunami threats aside, which curtailed some of the team’s sampling. Fingers crossed there’s no such excuses for them to twiddle thumbs in the months to come.
Cheers, Kathleen
Report at a
glance. For the full rundown visit our
website.
Forecast for the months
ahead
ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) status – ENSO
conditions are borderline neutral and weak La Niña.
That’s unlikely to change for much of our summer and means
we don’t have a strong driving influence on our summer
weather. Beyond that, as we head towards autumn, neutral
conditions are the most likely outcome.
In the absence of a strong ENSO signature, we’re expecting near normal rainfall over summer and average to above average temperatures. It’s looking like the westerlies we experienced through November may continue for a time during December so we may start the season off with low rainfall.
Soil Moisture, Temperature and Rainfall overview for November 2016
Soil Moisture:
Near
Normal
Temperature:
Hot
Rainfall:
Below
Normal