Seven days without sunshine: a record in Australia's capital

In the past week, from February 27 to March 4, the sun didn’t shine in drought-affected Canberra, the capital of Australia. Six years of drought was almost broken during a week of unprecedented rain – in fact, it was a 60-year record: the biggest Canberra wet since July 31 to August 6, 1950.

On February 27, 4.4mm was recorded; 5.6mm on February 28; 29.8mm on February 29; 59.2mm on March 1; 31.8mm on March 2; 0.8mm on March 3; and 62.0mm on March 4.

Nearly 200 millimetres (193.6mm) fell at Canberra Airport during the seven days, although only 75mm was recorded in the suburbs. Seven consecutive cloudy days produced three times its average March rainfall (163.2mm in March so far, out of an average of 50.7mm). The wettest March on record was 243.6mm in 1989. With March only barely into its first week, more rain is predicted for the remainder of the month.

The wet week also produced record number of visitors to the National Museum.

Other areas in New South Wales have experienced flooding due to extreme downpours. Reservoirs in the region that were barely a third full during the height of the drought in 2009 are now 100% capacity.

Does the rain mark the end of Canberra’s drought? Some think not. While the reservoirs nearby are full, Lake George on the outskirts of Canberra is not. In fact, its name is affectionately just “George” because it hasn’t been a lake for a long time—just a wide, shallow depression. Canberra locals won’t recognize that the drought is over until Lake George can be called a lake, without a touch of irony.

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