This year’s wet season has been a shocker, according to a veteran Katherine weather watcher.
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Jim Mathieson said in his almost 40 years of living in Katherine he has never seen the river as low during a wet season.
Having not risen more than six metres this season, he is worried for the year ahead.
“Unless we get substantial rain and the river is flushed out, it is going to be a tough year,” he said.
Mr Mathieson moved to Katherine in 1981 as a math and science teacher and was the official weather observer in town from 2005 to 2011.
“The wet season is probably going to fizzle out this year,” Mr Mathieson said.
To say he has an interest in meteorology is an understatement.
Even in retirement from weather duties, from his backyard garden rain gauge he has kept a keen eye (and precise recordings) on rain levels this season.
He has only recorded 515mm so far and says the average for the year should be around 1100mms.
“This wet season has not been normal,” he said.
“For February, we expect it to be much wetter.
“We have had some pretty good rain from storms but we should be getting consistent rains without thunder from the north east.
“If it rains in the morning and it is not a thunderstorm it is more likely to be monsoonal weather. It just hasn’t happened in the NT. It has happened in Queensland.”
He said the storms we have been having, loud with thunder and lightning are more typical of the build-up.
“The build-up has continued and the monsoon hasn’t established.”
But Katherine’s weather is variable, anything can happen.
In 2006, there was a minor flood – in comparison to the disastrous 1998 flood – which didn’t happen until the first week of April.
It was out of the blue, Mr Mathieson said.
The lack of rain this wet season will affect our water table and the river in the dry season. We need a good flush out.
- Weather enthusiast Jim Mathieson
“That year in February, there was less than about 100mm and the average is 238mm. March was quite wet and then there was a cyclone which turned into a rain depression and dropped a whole lot of water in the Katherine River.”
While we can hope for more rain this season, the odds are stacked against us.
Last night’s rain was the first in six days and there have been fewer cyclones across northern Australia.
We have had later than usual destructive winds sweep through town because the monsoon, which usually travels down from Indonesia, hasn’t arrived.
“The wet season is probably going to fizzle out this year,” Mr Mathieson said.
Since Katherine relies heavily on ground water, the lack of rain is likely to make for a difficult year ahead.
“We are still under water restrictions, something we have never had before,” he said.
“We need plenty of rain to soak into the aquifer, not just for the town’s supply but for just about every primary producer around.
“We have had bad wet seasons before, but we didn’t have PFAS issues, we could always use lots of bore water.
“Our water supply is poisoned and it looks like we will not have a new treatment plant until November.
“I think we will find water restrictions tough this year.”
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