Australia’s east coast is once again being put on notice to prepare for another season of torrential rain and potential flooding ahead of an expected third La Niña event in a row.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is expected to transition from a La Niña Watch to a La Niña Alert, which could occur as early as this week. In today’s report, BOM elevated the risk of another La Niña event from 50 per cent to 70 per cent
Chief meteorologist at Sky News Tom Saunders forecast last week of the upcoming event saying “all of the indicators from the Pacific Ocean are currently in the La Niña phase".
This time though, a second major weather event is set to clash with La Niña; the negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
“Last year, we had a pretty weak negative Indian Ocean Dipole and La Niña. This time, the negative IOD is actually much stronger, so we’re in pretty rare territory,” Saunders said.
Both major oceans on either side of the country are essentially in a wet phase, creating a double negative that is set to enhance rainfall.
Both La Niña and the negative IOD combined are set to create a rare event we haven’t seen since the 2010 Queensland flood disaster.
During a press conference on Monday, Queensland Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk urged residents to ensure that they are prepared.
“These conditions could be similar to the conditions that we saw over the summer this year,” she said.
“I don’t want Queenslanders to get alarmed, but what we do want to see is people to be prepared.”
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