By Paul Homewood

h/t Ian Magness

Waterfalls on the famous Ayers Rock in Australia have been making ripples this week:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-australia-56506799

Apparently we have to call Ayers Uluru now, as the Aborigines found it first. (Perhaps we ought to call our capital Londonium!)

The video says that 46mm of rain fell over last weekend, and variously describes the waterfalls as “unseasonal”, a “rare sight” and a “unique and extraordinary event”.

In reality, it is nothing of the sort.

Ayers Rock lies 335km southwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It is close to the small town of Yulara. The nearest long running weather station is Curtin Springs, 77km away. They had 52.2mm of rain on the 22nd.

But the record daily rainfall for March is 104.6mm, back in 1982.

http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=136&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_startYear=&p_c=&p_stn_num=015511

And as KNMI show, daily falls of 80mm and more are not uncommon:

http://climexp.knmi.nl/gdcnprcp.cgi?id=someone@somewhere&WMO=ASN00015511&STATION=CURTIN_SPRINGS&extraargs=

Naturally, to see a waterfall on the Ayers in the middle of the desert must still be a rare and surprising event for those who were actually there to see it. And with mobile phones and the growth of tourist traffic, the news of the waterfalls nowadays quickly gets to the outside world. In the past though it probably would not have made it past the front page of the Alice Springs News.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/3tVSt7U

March 26, 2021 at 05:36AM