Drought Hope Fades as the Heat Rises Across Australia's Food Bowl

November 9, 2008
Marian Wilkinson
Sydney Morning Herald

LOW spring rainfall and rising temperatures are crushing hopes for drought relief across the nation's food bowl in the Murray-Darling Basin, especially in the south around the newly heritage-listed Australian Alps.

The below-average rains confirm the region is stuck in a drought pattern that has persisted since 2000, the latest update from the Murray-Darling Basin and the Bureau of Meteorology revealed yesterday.

Predictions from the bureau that this summer will have hotter days and nights through the southern region of NSW and into to South Australia are increasing concerns that there will be no improvement in water flows into the river system this summer.

This financial year is tracking as the seventh-driest year in 117 years of records. While there has been improved rainfall in the northern basin, dams across the southern region have fallen to below a quarter of their capacity.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/drought-hope-falters-as-the-heat-rises/2008/11/07/1225561135952.html