Australia in the fury of floods with homes in Melbourne flooded, forecast says rivers will remain dangerously high for days

Melbourne happens to be the second-most populous city of Australia. Its population is around 5 million. The authorities advised some residents to move out of the suburb in northwest of Melbourne. There are similar instructions for hundreds in the Victoria state cities of Benalla and Wedderburn. Hundreds of homes in Victoria were flooded and many more remain isolated by floodwater. In the words of Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews - most of the state was experiencing a “very, very, significant rainfall event and it comes, of course, with the ground completely sodden.” The forecast of the Met department is of more rain throughout the next six-to-eight week period. Obviously, people will have to endure the situation for some more time. Daniel Andrews also mentioned about many homes without power. Homes Inundated by Swollen Rivers in Australian Floods. The State Emergency Service carried out more than 100 flood rescues in Victoria in the past 48 hours.

Last month the Bureau of Meteorology declared that a La Niña weather pattern, usually associated with above-average rainfall in eastern Australia, was underway in the Pacific. It said that the La Niña event may peak during the current Southern Hemisphere spring and return to neutral conditions early next year. Incidentally, La Niña is the cooler flip side of the better-known drying El Niño pattern. It is the third La Niña since 2019 when Australia became the hottest and driest year on record. That year witnessed wildfires fueled by drought that directly or indirectly led to the death of hundreds of people, destruction of hundreds of homes and loss of millions of acres of woods, farmland and city fringes. Sydney, the capital of New South Wales and the largest city of Australia beat its 1950 record last week to make 2022 its wettest-ever year.

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Worries for Pacific countries like New Zealand from combined effects of El Nino and La Nina

The combined effects of El Nino and La Nina could wreak havoc on Pacific countries like New Zealand as revealed by International researchers from 13 institutions, including Waikato University. Their conclusion is based on data collected from 48 beaches across three continents and five countries recorded between 1979 and 2012.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 22 September 2015.

As per their findings, bigger waves and more coastal erosion will hit the Pacific countries like New Zealand because the severe El Nino and La Nina events would lead to an increase in storm events. The research strengthens the understanding of the impacts of the climate-driven La Nina and El Nino systems.
These have not been factored into studies on future coastal vulnerability that focused mainly on sea level rise. It may be recalled that when the west coast of the US mainland and Canada, Hawaii, and northern Japan felt the coastal impacts of El Nino, namely, bigger waves, different wave direction, higher water levels and erosion. However, New Zealand and Australia had experienced 'suppression' like smaller waves and less erosion and, things could be different now.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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