BLOCK RAINFALL

2006

North of Nanango

 

Here is a link to our States' water resources. 

(The Dam closest to our area is the Bjelke-Petersen Dam)

Water Storage Information

 
RUNNEYMEDE Area - 152.0445°E, 26.3219°S, 435m ASL

 

 

The rainfall ( in mm ) reported here is read from a commercial rain gauge mounted in the open on a post 2 metres off the ground at my  5 acre block of land.

 

12.37pm - 21- 07- 2004

The dam finally dried up in late August 2004. I hadn't taken a picture of the cracked base with the lobster remains when it rained and started filling again.

 

 

 

11.30 am - 11-12-2004

 

10.30 am - 25-04-2005

 

10.58 am - 01-05-2006

Getting very close to drying up

Kangaroo & Wallaby paw prints left while looking for water

7.43 am - 25-06-2006

Completely dried up

Worst drought in over 100 years

 

(1) Showers. Very little runoff. As the ground was so dry, any runoff was absorbed into the soil before it reached the dam.

(2) Showers which turned to set in. Heavy showers enough to cause slight runoff. Enough runoff to collect around 75mm of water in the base of the dam and soak the surrounding clay out to about 3 metres.
 

(3)

3-11-2006 - 10.42am - Friday

"Rain event" due. Below are the Weatherzone forecasts from today out.

 ABC radio has carried forecasts from BOM forecasters, for the past 3 days at least, raising hopes high, of rain in our district as well as others. Most recent "rain events" have been "fizzers".

It will be very interesting to see how this one pans out.

Friday

 		 Thunderstorms
13°C - 27°C
Precip: 90%, 20-40mm
Frost Risk: Nil
 
  9am 3pm
Wind:  N 8kt  ENE 1kt
RH: 65% 77%
Saturday

 		 Thunderstorms
15°C - 24°C
Precip: 80%, 5-10mm
Frost Risk: Nil
 
  9am 3pm
Wind:  N 7kt  NW 2kt
RH: 83% 85%
Sunday

 		 Possible thunderstorm
14°C - 27°C
Precip: 50%, 1-5mm
Frost Risk: Nil
 
  9am 3pm
Wind:  WNW 6kt  W 6kt
RH: 52% 49%
Monday

 		 Possible shower
14°C - 29°C
Precip: 40%, < 1mm
Frost Risk: Nil
 
  9am 3pm
Wind:  W 8kt  SW 9kt
RH: 53% 48%
Tuesday

 		 Mostly cloudy
15°C - 28°C
Precip: 20%, < 1mm
Frost Risk: Nil
 
  9am 3pm
Wind:  SE 4kt  E 5kt
RH: 56% 58%
District Forecast
Friday

Patchy rain areas early. Scattered showers and thunderstorms developing during the day from the west, tending to rain overnight. Possible moderate to heavy falls in the west. Light to moderate N to NE winds.

 

Update - It turned out the forecasts were correct this time. Good for them.

Friday night it started slowly and rained softly most of the night. No runoff but 21mm fell.

Saturday afternoon, just on sundown, a line of storms  passed over. No runoff rain but another 13mm fell.

The afternoon before the rain was due I decided to take a walk from Judy's block up to my block with the dogs. I took the camera to take shots of the dam state to keep a record on here. Above is the result. Weeds are now growing in the base as it has now been dry since June. Now the first week in November.
As usual I take a look at my neighbours dam as it seems to last a little longer than my dam due to it's shape. It's more round, smaller and deeper. Above left is what I saw from the wall of my dam. As I stood there looking at it I noticed a swirling and then saw what I thought was a snake or eel in the water moving around in what now was a muddy, shallow puddle.
I decided to investigate. As I reached the edge I took the shot above right. Goofy, one of the dogs, a Great Dane x Bull Mastiff took a very keen interest in what I saw but I managed to persuade him not to go near it. But he did enter the water and disturbed whatever it was.
Above is what it turned out to be, a Catfish. It rushed to the other side and out onto the mud. I went around to push it back into the water and took the shots above.
Because there was no way it was going to survive in the muddy puddle that WAS a dam I told Judy and her son Marc about the situation. We decided to shift it into Judy's dam which is a very large dam still holding a lot of water which is downstream of the above dam.
Goofy was still very interested!
Happily Marc coaxed it into the bucket and shifted it into Judy's dam. It was last seen swimming off into the depths of her dam. Hopefully it will survive there and meet others of it's type as Judy says they were once in her dam, put there years ago when her husband was still alive.

Readings are taken at 9.00 am
Date Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
1         1              
2                        
3                     (3)  
4                     21 5
5 9                   13  
6       1                
7                        
8 22   1               (4 days)

10.5

  
9 7                    
10           15          
11                      
12                      
13                     7
14                      
15                        
16             6         34
17   32                  
18           1            
19           1            
20                        
21                        
22   22               8    
23         1              
24             (1) 20          
25                        
26                        
27                       8
28             (2) 24 17 13     14
29             (2) 3 7        
30                        
31     2                  
Monthly Totals 38 54 3 1 2 17 53 24 13 8 44.5 68
Days Rained 3 2 2 1 2 3 4 2 1 1 6 6
Cumulative Rainfall 38 92 95 96 98 115 168 192 205 213 257.5 325.5
Cumulative Days Rained 3 5 7 8 10 13 17 19 20 21 27 33

 

Last Updated : 25/05/2008 09:37 PM +1000