Three quarters of flood-hit Queensland is now a disaster zone and Brisbane is now deluged after extraordinarily heavy rain forced the Wivenhoe Dam to release excess water.
The Brisbane river level rose to just over 4 metres at 2.00pm and is expected to peak at 5.5 metres at 2.00am Malaysian time, 4.00am Brisbane time tomorrow and that peak level is expected to remain for 12-18 hours. (In the event, the peak level turned out to be a metre lower.) The city has been locked down. A contact in Brisbane tells me: “Brisbane city itself is sadly under. All along the Brisbane River is under. … the city cat (catamaran) boats… are all off the river as debris of trees, broken pontoons, wood, boats, parts of houses etc are floating rapidly down the river. The worse is yet to come as high tide is 4.00 am tomorrow morning and the river is expected to rise…”
Ironically, the biggest problem for Brisbane over the last 12-15 years has been drought. This looks like climate change to me.
Live reactions:
Live video of Brisbane River below from a webcam looking from Milton above Coronation Drive across the river to Riverside Drive at West End:
More live streaming here:
What is the reason for the flooding? The Wivenhoe Dam was only built to hold back 1.5 million litres of water from the catchment area, but now 2.5 million litres of water is coming through after extraordinarily heavy rainfall.
The New Zealand Herald quotes weather analyst Philip Duncan:
Mr Duncan says Brisbane is facing a different flood altogether.
“What Brisbane is being hit by is heavy rain that fell upstream over the past five days, and in particular the past 48 hours. The Wivenhoe Dam blocks the Brisbane River about 80km west of Brisbane and it is massive rainfall in this catchment that is causing the delayed flooding in Brisbane.”
Figures by the Bureau of Meteorology show an incredible amount of rain has fallen around the lake.
“Well over 100mm of rain had already fallen around the lake since Friday, but yesterday an incredible further 249mm fell in just 24 hours. This wall of water is now being released by the dam and is heading towards Brisbane,” says Mr Duncan.
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China at this moment is in winter, evaporation unable to go up to higher altitude , instead fog is everywhere and hardly rain. The drought will end once China enter Spring.
German another country in Summer suffered the same consequence like Australia. The rest of Europe which is in Summer will not be spared.
Any country that is in the Summer season will face the same problem like Australia and Brazil. So watch out for Japan and Korea. Malaysia is lucky because the local climate is equatorial, the effect of autumn weather that superimpose on it is less comparatively. Nevertheless we will still have plenty of rain until mid July. The effect on Malaysia might not be a disastrous one, it still able to cause landslide on places where wanton hill cutting took place for development. The further the country from the equator the more effect will be on the rain pattern. That is… Read more »
Mercury will be brighter early July. According to 礼记 。月令,孟夏行冬令，則草木蚤枯，後乃大水。 仲夏行冬令，則雹凍傷谷，道路不通。 If in early summer then flooding will not be avoidable. If in mid-summer, hail storm might occurred.
Australia will have to endure two months of extreme heavy rain. Venus superimposes the weather of autumn on the troposphere.This will cause the forming of cumulus and vertical cumulonimbus clouds due to large differential of temperature between surface of earth and the troposphere. During mid summer, the cloud forming activities are at the peak. After that it will gradually decreases. Between March and May, Australia will be in Autumn, at this time Australia will the heaven for those who want to seek asylum against the nature calamity. The Fall season will be one of the most beautiful for one to… Read more »
GOOD NEWS THE WIVENHOE DAM DOES TO BREAK INSPITE OF IN SUDDENT INTENSE RAINFLL SHOWS THEY ARE DESIGN FOR PROPABLE MAX PRECIPATION WHICH IS ABOUT 1 IN 10,000 YEARS EVENT. THE SAME GOES TO BAKUN DAM. BAKUN DAM IS UNDERGOING CRITICAL STAGE DURING FILLING UP.
Australia in mid summer already suffered so bad. I just can’t image those countries which are entering spring season, how bad and severe the rains will be.
Australia is now in mid summer.
According to 礼记 。月令, 季夏行秋令，則丘隰水潦，禾稼不熟，乃多水災。 夏行秋政水；夏季如果天氣涼，就會多雨，發大水。 民諺：暑伏涼，澆倒牆。
Summer but autumn weather is superimposed, there will a lot rains, due to rapid evaporation and cloud forming.
白虎臨身日，臨身必有災. When the day white tiger make its appearance, there will be disaster. On Jan 8 Venus reaches its farthest point west of the sun in Earth’s sky.On Jan 9, Mercury, the innermost planet, lies at its greatest distance west of the sun in Earth’s sky. This make both planets easy to be seen, especially Mercury. The planetary effect of this is a late autumn weather will be superimposed on majority of the place on planet Earth between Dec,2010 and mid July 2011. To understand how it affect the weather one need to refer to old ancient text of 礼记… Read more »
When the white tiger is out (白虎出閘) to the ancient people, it is judgement day. Not end of the world as some would like to believe. Judgement Day means it is time for those who abuse the nature to pay for their crime against nature. Who ever believe man can overcome nature will be made humble by the might of nature when nature become furious. It is the time to face the music, a time for me to dedicate this song to those who believe that they can overcome nature,who can conquer nature. “I wonder how you guy survive…”(to the… Read more »
This month’s night sky is extra ordinary. The early part of the night sky is dominated by Jupiter. As Jupiter enter the zodiac of Aquarius, the year is consider as the year of Dragon, not Rabbit. So enter the dragon. To see Jupiter, look at the sky in the south to southwest sky at early evening, just after sunset. Venus appear in the east-northeast at late evening, shining at a blazing magnitude -4.0. What make the late evening sky special is the appearance of Venus, Mercury and Saturn. This month provide the opportunity of a lifetime to see Mercury when… Read more »
According to more than 2 thousands years old ancient text of 礼记 。月令(li ji 。yue ling), if during spring season, instead of spring, the weather of autumn take place, then extreme heavy rain and flooding will take place. In China, instead of winter, the weather of autumn take place, fog will be every where. As the season is moving towards spring. Whatever that happen in Australia now will repeat itself in China. Sarawak in now facing the same problem. Planet Venus is now dominating the early morning sky outshines all the other stars and planets forcing the weather of autumn… Read more »
Imagine that happens to Bakun dam.
Kapit, Song, Kanowit and Sibu towns (could) be wiped out from the face of the earth together with all the villages along the mighty Rejang River! Thanks to our caring government.
Will the whole of malaysia be flooded if the kind of rain that queensland is experiencing now falls here?
My sincere condolences to all those affected by the floods in particular to those who have lost their loved ones.