Hope swells for wet summer in NT as La Nina brings promising rain
/Central Australia's first major rain of the season brought smiles to the faces of many pastoralists this week.
Key points:
- Some Central Australian stations notched up more rain this week than they did all of last year
- There are hopes that it's a sign of a wet summer to come
Station managers report that it was good grass-growing rain
Andy Hayes from The Garden Station, about 120 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs, said he received more rain over three days than he did in all of 2019.
"We ended up with a total of 70 millimetres," he said.
"Last year, we had a total of 61mm for the year, and six months of the year with no recordings."
Last year was the second driest year on record for the Northern Territory.
Now the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a wetter than average summer and Mr Hayes hopes the recent rain is a sign of things to come.
"It's just a really good start for the summer," he said.
"There are still people out there that have only had a small amount, but it would be good if the gaps were filled and everybody got their fair share."
The right kind of rain
Sixty kilometres east of Alice Springs, Loves Creek Station caretaker Jo Bloomfield said they had received the right sort of rain to set them up for the summer months.
"It felt really nice, that really light and misty stuff," she said.
"You don't want those nasty, heavy showers that sort of wash everything away.
"There's now a good chance for it to soak in and hopefully get that really good, deep moisture and grow a bit of good grass."
There was almost 50mm of rain in the gauge at Loves Creek, which Ms Bloomfield said was a great addition to rains the station received earlier in the year.
Follow-up rains needed
The drought-stricken Umbearra Station, about 320km south of Alice Springs, received 41mm of drizzling rain over three days.
Owner Angus McKay said it was the most rain the station had seen in two years.
"Since October 2018, the biggest rain event we've had might have been five or six millimetres," he said.
"The last significant grass-growing event was January 2017, so it's been a long time between good rains."
Mr McKay, who grew up on Umbearra, said it was the driest period on record for the station.
He cautioned that the rain would not mean much without more in the coming weeks.
"If we don't get a significant follow-up rain and we go back into some 40-degree weather during November, then it'll burn up really quick and we're back to where we started again," he said.
He said even though the rains were not drought-breaking, it was certainly good for the mindset of those on the station.
"Up until a week ago we thought it was never going to rain again," he said.
"So this gives you the optimism that things are going to turn around."