The Drought

With the most comments and interesting twists of the entries to date, I've decided the Drought warrants its own Q&A.

Questions: I was not aware fresh water was not abundant. Is it a problem of overuse or insufficient replinishment?

How will the drought affect wineries and prices?

Answers: As I mentioned in the first response, I had a hard time buying into the drought itself, given the rainfall I've seen since I've been here. Apparently, though, it's been an issue for several years. It's measured less by actual rainfall, and aquifers, and more by levels at collection sites. I understand that recently, they were at about 30% of normal, down from 50% a few years ago.

As far as whether it's overuse or a replenishment issue, it seems that based on water restrictions, it is hard to blame overuse. No one is allowed to even wash their cars at this point, and they haven't been able to for a while. I heard that last winter (the rainy season), they were lucky to have had three days of rain for the whole season. People have definitely been considering global warming a possible factor.

More interestingly, there is also another theory about the location of the collection sites themselves. Since there has been some rainfall lately, but not into the reservoirs, there has been some argument that they aren't located in the right places. Not something they can do much about in the short term, but it's an interesting theory.

The good news is that with the recent snow a little beyond the city, they are hopeful that the melt will flow into the rivers and down to the collection sites. At least winter has been more rainy than usual, I suppose.

As for wine prices, there is some question about whether they will go up. Since most people have been bearing the burden with the water restrictions, businesses have been able to survive so far, from what I understand, but as the levels dropped below 30%, it is only a matter of time before prices begin to respond. If, however, the recent rain and snow starts to fill things back up, you may not even know it was going on here.

Weather Man

Question (paraphrased): Noticed you in the jacket and hat. What's the weather like compared to back home (Tulsa and Detroit)?

Answer: It's really pretty mild. Probably mid-50s for highs, and lows in the 40s. Occasionally, it's gotten near freezing (3 or 4 celcius at one point). The Docklands (where I live) is a little closer to the water than the central business district (by a block or so), so it's generally a little windier here, or so they tell me.

Generally, I get around in a suit for work, and that's all I need for my commute. When I'm out a little longer, sometimes I layer up and wear a shirt, sweater, and light jacket. I don my beanie if I'm just sitting around for a while, but I find that if I'm walking around, I get hot with it on.

For rain, I know I mentioned the drought, but it's a longer term issue than the current weather. Besides, winter is the rainy season here. It's been cloudy quite a bit, and we've had some light rain. Actually, it's not uncommon for me to head out in the morning and notice that it rained a little bit the night before. A week ago or so (when it was near freezing), they got some snow northwest of here (snow isn't common in Melbourne itself).

Melbourne tends to be one of the colder capital cities, but as I said, it's pretty mild. Reminds me mostly of the early part of winter for Tulsa. For Detroit, it's very much like the fall.

Q&A&

Welcome to the site. This will be the sister blog to www.australian-annals.blogspot.com, where you can post questions through comments, and I'll try to pick some to respond to in brief. Generally, I envision it to work like this: you post a comment that suggests a new Q&A heading (a new blog entry). I'll post your question and my initial response. That might bring up a bunch of follow up questions, so you can post those as comments to that entry. I'll try to keep responding through comments that I post back to the same entry. If a new question spins off, I'll start an entry for that one, but still check for comments on the existing ones.

That's how I see it today, anyway.... We'll see how it goes.