Buzzy--Bee

Yes but might be only temporarily.....

BB

MartinLuther

Ah! I thought you said baths.

So what do people do in the shower for more than 4 mins?

MartinLuther

You're right. It was bucketing it down when I made that post and now it's all sunny and fluffy clouds.

moneypenny20

My 15 year old daughter manages to have showers that last about 20 minutes. She can't tell us what she does or why it takes so long but jeezus krist it raises the husband's blood pressure. It's not even as if she's massive and her hair is really short. Beyond me

mpgrewal

Kids watch a lot of mirror at this age

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Sounds like I would get along with your husband. My 16yr old son tries to do the same and it drives me potty. The bizarre thing is that I have to shout at him to get in the shower in the first place....and then bawl at him to bloody get out again.

Dreamy

My almost 19 year old son is the same. Now he's going to uni so we're operating on a tight time schedule in the morning, its a complete pain in the arse.

They're a strange lot, teenagers.

ProudVIC

The last 12 months have had average to above average rainfall for most of Victoria. The coastal and far southern areas have been a bit drier with respect to average conditions than the inland areas on and north of the Great Divide. So far this year most places on and north of the Great Divide are seeing above average rainfall.

Some places like Bendigo in the north of the state are almost up to their annual average rainfall already. The impending La Nina is at least partly responsible and it is likely to get even wetter over the coming spring and summer. Last summer was very wet for a lot of the state with frequent severe thunderstorms and heaps of tropical moisture. Melbourne was getting similar humidity readings to Brisbane on a regular basis last summer. It could be similar again this summer but then no one can really predict these things that well.

Dam levels are rising very rapidly now across the state, but more so in those same areas inland and in the north as the catchments on the Great Divide are seeing a lot of rain and this is being supplemented by good rain well into the north of the state. Lake Eppalock, SE of Bendigo, is up to 18% capacity from just under 12% in July and only 8% in April. Apparently they are recommencing water skiing and speed boating there for the first time in 8 years. Many river systems in Victoria have either seen flooding in the last week or are primed for flooding with more solid rainfall in the coming weeks.

Where I am on the ranges NW of Melbourne the ground is waterlogged and streams are flowing very well, there is a lot of standing water in paddocks. We have had 605mm so far this year and should crack 900mm for the year if we get average rain for the rest of the year. Above average rain and we could get over 1000mm for the year (the annual average for my place is around 850mm).

Despite all this we are still no where near as wet as we were in the late 80s to mid 90s and in particular the mid 70s (going a fair bit back before I was born). Dams were at or near capacity all over the place and there were major floods from time to time somewhere in VIC and some years significant parts of the state were flooded in late winter and spring.

The last 13 years have generally been extremely dry, the long term drought most of Victoria has seen in this time is pretty much unprecedented in recorded history along with some of the heatwaves we have had between the October and April periods where many high temperature records have been smashed at some stage in the last 5 years or so. The significance of these heat records we have experienced is of a similar level to what Russia (using as an example) has seen over the NH summer this year, i.e. really extreme temperatures compared to normal.

It does look like things are returning to normal somewhat.

One thing for sure, most of the state will be very green this spring after being mostly brown or dead for most of the last 10 years with just the odd green period, mainly around the wetter parts on and south of the ranges in the winters and springs. Most of my childhood I remember a very green landscape in Victoria so it has been very disheartening to see things so dry and brown a lot of the time. We are supposed to be a green state here, it is not meant to be chronically dry.

Sherlock Holmes

This is my fourth winter here in Vic. For the first two winters (all year actually) it hardly rained at all. Locals here say that it hasn't rained like it used to in winter for 12 years. This year has been goodish for rainfall.

Vic is of course the same size as Britain, so to talk of it in one lump is a bit misleading. Gippsland is often flooded but also catches alight quite regularly. In my little corner, officially, it has never been in drought. My office is up a short unmade laneway. Even with all the rain, after two dry days, if it gets windy, there is dust blowing along the lane.

Rocklands is nearly empty as is Lake Bellmead but they are getting a bit better but still only at 8%.

I was in Ararat recently and there was a new estate going in. All the blocks were marked out and each one had a very large water tank on it.

I just wish the $900.00 hand out had been water tanks instead of cash. Even if you don't fancy drinking rainwater or using it for cooking you can shower in it and use it for the loo. Here in the country, most people connect the mains water to the loo only and use tank water for everything else. That's what they think of the town water!

In short, the drought may be eased but I don't think we can say that we are out of it.

Apparantly, there are 4 major rain events forecast for September.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Arrived four years ago..it was raining.
Constantly told about the ‘Big Dry’... usually while sheltering from the rain.
Posted first video on Youtube... it was my gutters overflowing and the flood running down the street.
Planted up my first garden in Australia... went ‘native’ and planted all the drought tolerant species I could find. All died in the first Summer... drowned.

Drought... you’re having a laugh.

mr mover

How many bars of soap , will he use ..........??..........MM

iamthecreaturefromuranus

A soap dodging joke... how quaint.

MartinLuther

I see that Melbourne is moving back to stage 2 from 1st September.

Sherlock Holmes

The Wannon River is flowing well at Nigretta and Wannon Falls. Last summer they were completely dry. The problem is, if there is not much more rain till next winter, they'll be dry again.

These locations are in one of the potentially highest rainfall areas. It hasn't rained well for 7 years though.

Whilst all this recent rainfall is a blessing, it will take a few more years of above average rainfall to get back to a really healthy situation.

ProudVIC

Weeaproinah, a small farming community in the Otways area of SW VIC and the wettest location in Victoria with an average of 1931mm of rain a year has broken the record for the wettest month there in 109 years of records.

626.2mm (25 inches) has been recorded there this month beating the previous monthly record of 538.1mm in June 1952. Apparently this is not the wettest month ever recorded in Victoria with some stations in the high country of the NE of the state and another location not far from Weeaproinah having wetter months at some point in history, (was told but have forgotten exactly where and when).

Weeaproinah is more or less a cleared tract in amongst temperate rainforest and is not far from the 'Otway fly' rainforest walk and Triplet falls to give people an idea of exactly where I am talking about here. The nearest town to Weeaproinah is Lavers Hill about 12 km SW.

I can only imagine how wet it is there underfoot in the paddocks. It is bad enough here and we have only had 138mm this month (which is still 50mm above average for August here).