Rainfall figures

Fazda

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I am just busy finishing off our rainfall figures for this season (Runs August to September) and have been telling everybody that we have had the driest summer in 10 years....

Well, I thought that I had better check, and here are the figures for our part of the coast since 2001...

01 -02 1549.5

02 - 03 790.5

03 - 04 1090.5

04 - 05 965

05 - 06 1079.5

06 - 07 1274

07 - 08 1559 ( with one fall of 330 in one day in June)

08 - 09 1145

09 - 10 837

That gives an average of 1143 per year, so we still are 306 mm behind this year!

So...I was wrong, but the last time it was drier than this was in 2002 - 2003....:o

Now to hope for an improvement in the new season~!
 
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Strange, we had higher rainfall in the Northern Freestate during Jan-Feb than the entire rainfall for the summer for almost 10 years preceding that. On my parents farm in Mpumalanga it was quite similar with extremely high rain fall for 2009-2010. The veld were that wet that we could only start making fire breaks in early July!
 
Yes, I meant to say that whilst the majority of the rest of the country was having a really good season, I know that Gauteng and the Polokwane area are miles over their normal, we just seem to be getting drier and drier on the coast.
 
True, but if you have a look of the rainfall of the country and the amount you guys are getting it is still quite high. Less than 7% of the country have higher rainfall than 800mm. Even KZN have an annual average rainfall of about 850mm?
 
It is very low for our particular area, where the average is closer to 1200 - inland does get a lower average, but their plants can cope with it. everything is dying here at the moment...
 
Fazda same here. The dogs have run dust paths in the dead grass this year. Very dry.
 
Now this explains why my litchi tree is full of blossoms, going to be a bumper crop.
 
Water restrictions down here... we need rain!

No decent rain for the last 2 years and are dams are at 32%.
 
Water restrictions down here... we need rain!

No decent rain for the last 2 years and are dams are at 32%.
On the bright side I don't have to worry about tracking down that leak in my roof . . . :o
 
No major rain storms for the cape this year despite the constant miserable weather that never seemed to end.

Why the massive drop in Steenbras lower dam level?

Also which damn wall is that in the pic
 
No major rain storms for the cape this year despite the constant miserable weather that never seemed to end.

Why the massive drop in Steenbras lower dam level?

Also which damn wall is that in the pic
The winter seemed colder to me?

That dam wall seems to be the Lower Steenbras Dam judging by the picture in the link?

I cannot say why that dam is so low. If you read this link it states that water is pumped from the Upper Steenbras Dam to the Lower Steenbras Dam, treated and then piped to Cape Town. So there must be some reason why they have not released water from the upper to the lower. Perhaps not enough in the upper?

Take into account that the Steenbras Lower Dam built in 1921 only represents 3.73% of the total stored capacity
 
Even Cape Town has been quite dry this winter.

Isn't there a 7 year rain cycle or something like that anyway? Where every 7 years it's dryer than normal.

1995 was dry - That I remember clearly. +- 7 years later 2002 / 2003 exactly the same, and now 2010.
 
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