Premium
Secular changes in the rainfall regime of SE. Australia
Author(s) -
Kraus E. B.
Publication year - 1954
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49708034608
Subject(s) - westerlies , climatology , spring (device) , monsoon , tropical cyclone rainfall forecasting , environmental science , geology , atmospheric sciences , cyclone (programming language) , computer hardware , mechanical engineering , field programmable gate array , computer science , engineering
Abstract Analysis of long‐series rainfall records from Victoria and New South Wales shows a decrease of summer rainfall to a minimum about the turn of the century, and fifty years' gradual increase since then. Winter rainfall trends were opposite. Fluctuations of a much larger amplitude affected the rainfall regime of autumn and spring, suggesting possibly a discontinuous change of the climatic development about 1893. The winter rainfall of southern New South Wales is positively correlated with the mean strength of the westerlies at 300 mb. The correlation is negative in summer. It is concluded that the changes of the rainfall regime were associated with an increase of intensity of the upper westerlies to a maximum at about 1900 and a following decrease. During the period of maximum mean westerly flow the formation of east‐coast cyclones in autumn and spring may have been inhibited and the monsoon rains of tropical Queensland were below normal.