At long last the monsoon has hit northern Australia.
Although Malaysia, Indonesia and even Singapore had a lot of rain over the past few weeks, even with floods in eastern Malaysia, it was not until just after Christmas that the monsoon westerlies and north westerlies had crossed into the north west of Australia with Darwin recording strong winds and rain from around 27 December.
Sure, it is now wet.........even very wet, with around 200 - 250mm of rain since last week, and the ground is a bit saturated, but the cloud cover means lower temperatures and great conditions really, with a few sunny periods.
Without the monsoon to bring life back to plants, animals, replenish the groundwater and rivers and generally reviving everything.......you are in deep trouble.
A detailed information brief is on the website of the Met Bureau http://www.bom.gov.au/ under tropical climate note.
It is now too wet to plant crops and pastures.........the old adage of "being planted by Christmas" in this part of Australia is very accurate this year. And current prognostications indicate it will be wet for a while yet too.
Rain on!
2 comments:
thins area is ideal for oil palm,soy beans and sugarcane plantations for very price promising biofuels
No it is not.......clearly over 100years of development has not resulted in an established agricultural system in the region. Soils are diverse and agriculturally suitable soils are generally scattered in small patches.
There may be better options.
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