So how much water dumped down on central Canberra?

JYK: the harsh reality of political life is that one doesn’t last long by trying to actually explain issues properly – look at what happened to Kim Beasley and Andrew Bartlett. Pollies are forced to work within the moulds that the media forces on them, or be ridiculed.

Spot on seepi.
How ludicrous is this scenario:
“I will not replace these old lightglobes to reduce how much money I pay for electricity because global warming is bunkum.”

And thank you Al for accepting my superior knowledge. 🙂

rentboy said: “It’s media spin that transforms this into fact.” and “The way the research is reported in the media by ignorant reporters and politicians is fair game…..”

Soooooo True – Couldn’t have said it better myself, and I am stoked to learn that there are others who believe that the media is full of %$#@.

Which raises the next question:

If we know that they [The media and the govmit {spelt kind of like vomit}] are full of crap, why do we continue to engage them?

I know that my recycling bit is situated half way between my letterbox, and my house, so I don’t have to carry the Chronicle too far….

Alternately, have we considered the long term benefits of compressing the Canberra Times, and Chronicle into fuel to warm our houses???

Statistics of a 100 year period in relation to the earth’s climate are as signifant as a fart in a hurricane.

Oh – and everything that rentboy said just then…

I really don’t understand the passion with which some people disagree with global warming.

I mean, if thereis no global warming, and yet we’ve all tried to save water/power/resources etc, what have we lost – nothing.

yet if there is significant global warming and we do nothing the result is pretty scary.

JB: you neglected to mention the article squeezed in on those storm news pages about “Keep nuke options open” about Australia supplying uranium for arms (not the nuclear energy to reduce greenhouse BS) – guess one could argue it was all themed on destruction…
On the GH debate, I agree that many many things are being conveniently parked on the doorstep of global warming, as is always the over-simplified way of the mainstream media. BUT it is helping get the overall issue through the wall of apathy…And anyway, who among us (other than barking toad) can claim to be completely informed on this incredibly complex issue?

It’s not the ‘scientific experts’ who blame every even slightly unusual period even on climate change–it’s the media and people with other axes to grind.

Climate scientists are a lot more measured, understanding that one or two storms, or a week of hot or cool weather do not a climate make.

Unlike all the losers who, if it’s hot, straight away blame global warming, or the deniers who, if it’s cool for a few days, are quick to exlaim ‘See–all this global warming rubbish is baloney’.

Isolated weather events do not equate climate, which is measured in long-term averages. The last three years in Canberra have been the hottest on record. Last January was the third hottest month on record. February, despite the rain and a relatively cool end, was also one of the hottest on record. Even if La Nina moves us into a wetter, cooler than average phase, the overall trend will still be an upwards one.

Scientific research always talks in terms probability when predicting future trends–they are not the ones scaremongering–as they know future global warming is not 100% certain. It’s media spin that transforms this into fact.

What scientists can agree on, because it is readily measurable, is that in the last 100 years the world has undergone statisticall significant warming.

So unless you regularly and thoroughly sift through academic journal articles or raw climate data, please don’t denigrade climate or other scientific research. The way the research is reported in the media by ignorant reporters and politicians is fair game, however.

hehe – good pun bg!!

are we still able to vote for tag lines for the top of the page, cause I think my first comment is worthy of inclusion (bit of self promotion!)

Be careful LG

Sensible comments like that could get you gored

go the drunken spelling. bloody miguel.

There is an argument emrging that belief and the practice of environmentalism is becoming akin to relogion. A load of balls in my book, but still a bit of giggle.

Climate Change: Keeping academics in jobs and in the media since…what… 2004? 2005?

Global warming prior to this and.. wasn’t it Global Cooling before that?

I believe that human activity is effecting our environment, however, I do not (and probably never will) understand the extend of this effect. Although I do agree that we should do whatever we can to minimise our impact on the environment.

But when every bit of rain, drought, flood, snow (or even normal weather!) is ’cause by climate change’ these days… it hardly adds credibility to the ‘experts’ from my view.

Back in the distant past, my younger days in Queensland, we had a storm that dumped 400 or so mm of rain in a little over 3 hours. Caused widespread flooding, many homes went under.

It’s the Gore Effect.

Gaia’s revenge on Oscar.

A more or less official reading of 65mm recorded in the Botanical Gardens and 50mm at Cook. Don’t any of you ever consult the BOM site for these things? The following is a nifty link for checking precipitation in the Canberra region in the past 24 hours:

http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/nsw/southcoast.shtml

Anyway, if you’re really interested weather posts, check out dedicated weather forums such as Weatherzone:

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

It contains plenty of detailed discussion on the recent Canberra storms under the Breaking Weather Updates heading

From the ABC (yes JB I know I should link it but I cant be arsed figuring out how):

‘Tuesday night’s damaging hail storm that swept through Canberra’s inner city seems to have done little to boost dam levels, but its effects could linger for some time.

The dam levels remain at just below 35 per cent.

Chris Hare from water supplier ACTEW, says despite 70 millimetres of rain on Tuesday, little has fallen over the dams.

“We are getting a slight improvement in the inflows now, but we really need that follow-up rain to make quite a significant difference,” he said.’

We *are* the gutter press.

With all this interest in stormwater drains, you’d have to say RiotACT’s a part of the gutter press.

The high-tide mark in the drains near Chisholm after NYE were up at the path level, which are in about the same position as the path in the photo above.

Frankly I’d be more worried about all the stories on the weather.

Pah! That’s not a tide mark, come down to Tuggeranong and see the NYE storm high tide mark. At the very start of the stormwater at theodore it was at least 5 metres above the top of the concrete drains.Those metal ladders on the side of the stormwater drains were twisted round like a double helix.
You have to love weather.

JB, you do seem to spend an awful lot of time discussing stormwater drains.

ActewAGL are reporting 67mm at the Weather station on ActewAGL House in Civic:

http://www.actewagl.com.au/weather/report.aspx

It’s hard to get an accurate reading with that much hail, the rain guages tend to get clogged up.

We exceeded the average rain fall for February, if we can do it again in March it will look more likely that the drought is breaking.

When I drove past the back of Duntroon this (Wednesday) morning, I saw that the fences around the golf course had mud and debris washed into them right up to the top wire, and in two places they’d actually been washed over. Scary stuff.

(This is the normal farm-style fences, though, not the taller-than-a-person cyclone fencing.)

The similar storm that hit Tuggeranong on New Year’s Eve dumped 70mm in my rain gauge. Considering that the normal annual rainfall is around 670mm, 10% in a couple of hours is a lot.