CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia’s weather bureau said on Wednesday that areas of severe rainfall deficiency had expanded and soil moisture was below average across large parts of the country, threatening crops in one of the world’s largest agricultural exporters.
The Bureau of Meteorology said rainfall was 49.5% below the 1961–1990 average in August, the tenth-driest August in records going back to 1900. It earlier said Australia had experienced its warmest winter on record.
Australian government forecasters this week downgraded their estimates for winter wheat production by 800,000 metric tons, saying that while some areas had received rain, many were so dry that crops had suffered.
More dry weather is expected due to a strengthening El Nino weather event.
The weather bureau said most areas already suffering lack of rainfall had below average August rainfall so areas of deficiency had generally expanded and become more severe.
“Since May 2023, areas of severe rainfall deficiency (totals in the lowest 5% of periods since 1900) have persisted in south-west, Western Australia, and expanded along eastern Australia,” it said.
“Serious deficiencies (totals in the lowest 10% of periods since 1900) have expanded inland across north-eastern New South Wales into Queensland.”
“August soil moisture was below average (in the lowest 30% of all years since 1911) across a wide band from south-west Western Australia into southern South Australia, south-central and eastern Victoria, eastern Tasmania, and New South Wales and southern Queensland, except in the west,” the bureau said.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Michael Perry)
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