Jennifer Marohasy » How Melbourne’s Climate Has Changed: A reply to Dr David Jones (Part 2)

There has been a steady decline in the amount of water in Melbourne’s dams since 1998, but the chart of total catchment rainfall shows no such decline. Indeed rainfall over the last decade appears to have been fairly steady.

When Dr Jones writes that rainfall has been 20% below the long-term average I wonder what time frame he uses by way of comparison? When Dr Jones writes that runoff has been 40% below average it is interesting to again ponder time frames and also what changes in land management in the catchment may have contributed to the reduction. Indeed the available data suggests that dam levels have fallen significantly even though there has been reasonable rain.