Record gone in big dry

A drier than average winter looks set to have killed off any chance Port Hedland had of breaking a 55-year-old annual rainfall record.

Only 24.2mm of rain fell in Hedland in the three months to last Wednesday, including 0.8mm in June and nothing in August, leaving the Pilbara town stuck on 531.2mm for 2011.

The 12-month record of 626.8mm, set in 1956, appears to be safe with Port Hedland Bureau of Metrology observer Daniel Hayes saying average rainfall figures for the remaining four months promised little in the way of precipitation.

“September the average is 1.2mm, 0.9mm in October, 2.5mm for November and it’s 18.5mm in December.

That’s not to say that we can’t get a year when we get a good drop of rain in any of those months.

In December 2008, for example, we managed 46.2mm on a single day.”

Mr Hayes said there was no prevailing reason for the drier-than-average winter period, technically known as the dry season in northern Australia, other than simple variation. The three month average rainfall figure in Hedland for June to August is 37mm.

Last year, 54.2mm fell while in 2009 the area received only 12.2mm.

Marble Bar had a similarly dry season with only 9.8mm in the rain gauge, well below the long term average of 35.8mm.

Newman was slightly wetter with 41.6mm falling, eclipsing its winter average by 4.5mm.

Mr Hayes said the cyclone outlook for the coming season would be released in October with the Bureau planning to send experts to the Pilbara to meet with local emergency service representatives and the general public.