Talk:Drought in Australia

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Assessment comments The following comments were left by the assessors: (edit · history · watch · refresh) Most of the info is already outdated (as of June), particularly in view of recent statistics that show 2007 rainfall to be above average, as publicly recognized by the Australian government. The entire tone of the article is sensationalist, and the references to suicide among farmers look out of place, to say the least. The 1,000 year-drought statistic is certainly wrong, and should be deleted unless somebody can come up with details on the weather patterns for the last thousand years. Aussiesta 13:20, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

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[edit] Responses section

This needs some clean-up for importance. For example:

On Thursday 12th October 2006 Melbourne recorded its hottest October day in 92 years reaching 36.6 degrees celsius - a hot summer's day temperature in the middle of spring. On this particular day over 250 wildfires burnt throughout the state of Victoria whose bushland and forest are now extremely dry from lack of rain.[citation needed]

While interesting, this doesn't by itself actually say anything about drought and climate. There have been a number of record days in the past few years: 1 January 2006 was the hottest day in Sydney for quite some time (at about 44℃), and 16 November 2006 in Sydney was had the coldest November minimum in over 100 years (at 8.3℃)[1]. Statistics about the temperature and rainfall trends of a season would be relevant to a drought article, but extensive discussion of a single very hot or very cold day seems unwarranted.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Thayvian (talk • contribs) 09:53, 17 November 2006 (UTC+11 hours AEDT)

• Agree, extreme high temperatures, lack of rainfall over time -> low soil moisture and / or low moisture content in vegetation seem relevant though--Golden Wattle ^talk 22:58, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Absolutely, and these kinds of figures should go into the article. I just object to extensive (or probably even minimal) write-ups of isolated extreme weather events. Thayvian 23:06, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

<<Drought Suicides>> Can I suggest the suicide section be updated to reflect updated information. Media Watch recently did a story on this noting that in fact the statistics were not so dire as reported: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1869891.htm - os 31/5/07

[edit] Electricity prices increase

I heard on TodayTonight that electricity prices has increased in some places. Anyone has sources?Wai Hong 09:06, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

TodayTonight is hardly a reliable source. I suggest you get your information from a better source next time. perhaps a government website? Kangaroosrule (talk) 08:41, 13 March 2008 (UTC)