We all know it bucketed down for long parts of last year, but the good news is that according to Sunrise Beach’s unofficial weatherman, Jim Kennedy, we won’t see the likes of it again for several years.
Jim, 84, has been monitoring local rainfall for several years now and in 2019 he began charting the fluctuations.
He says: “What’s the most talked about thing in the world and what is the thing we can have least effect on? It’s the weather, of course. And rainfall is generally the aspect of weather which gets the most attention.”
So Jim set out to monitor and analyse rainfall.
Jim is at pains to explain that his gauge readings, on the coast at Sunrise, can be different from the official reading upriver a few kilometres at Tewantin, due to local topography, but they tend to average out. And since Noosa Today first met him in early 2021, his predictions based on the evidence of his backyard gauge have been right on the money.
He says: “If you felt that we had a lot of rain and not much sunshine in 2022 you would be spot on. It was a year that will not be repeated for many years to come.
“Let’s start with the rainfall for calendar year 2022 at Sunrise Beach. It was 2561mm.This represents 165 per cent of the average of 1557mm, and is the fourth wettest year on record since rainfall started being recorded locally from 1886.
“By comparison Brisbane’s 2022 record for annual rainfall was a paltry 2242mm, significantly less than what we endured.”
Jim also notes that despite the drenching we know we got, it doesn’t look like a record year at first glance. “The monthly rainfall figures don’t look like record-breakers with seven months above the average and five months pulling up short. It just shows the devil is in the detail, and what a devil it was. This becomes obvious when you go into the detail of the monthlies. Two months, February (823mm) and May (630mm), accounted for 1453 mm or 57 per cent of the 2022 total, and 1453mm is only 100mm below our yearly average.
“This left the other 10 months to make up the balance of 43 per cent which equated to 1113mm.
“It’s no mystery why parts of our community experienced such heartbreak and sadness during the floods of February and May. The bureaucrat who thought he should put Queensland – Sunshine State on our number plates would no doubt want to reconsider.
“Rain fell in Noosa on 43 per cent (156) of days in 2022. So you could say we had five months of rain. Sunshine State? Don’t think so.”
And what’s on the way for the rest of 2023?
The BOM has said that La Nina is on the way out and we can expect this year to be dryer than 2022. The Bureau will release its full climate statement for 2022 and predictions and trends into the future during February, but if you can’t wait that long, Jim says their rainfall predictions have been spot on for January so far.
“In the past 28 days we have received only 60mm of rain with rain falling on nine days, even though it’s been bucketing down up north.
“Compare this miserly amount with the averages of December and January, being 139mm and 140mm respectively, while last year we had 171mm in January.
“It’s almost if the rain gods turned off the tap. Looks like it’s time to pack the brolly away and stock up on sunscreen.”
