Cooler, wetter weather delivered by the La Nina cycle brought record crops, but how long will it last?
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Producers Australia wide have celebrated the best crop in years but Farmers for Climate Action say, this La Nina is unlikely to stick around for long.
"As far as we know now it's peaked already. That means the wetter, cooler weather that we have been experiencing will persist for a few months, but we won't know for how long until we're out of it," Corey Watts, policy adviser at Farmers for Climate Action said.
While this particular La Nina has brought welcome increased rainfall and a summer that has seen unusually mild temperatures, the region has not seen the extreme rainfall generally associated with past La Nina events.
"In the Riverina region, you're getting rain but not the long down-pours needed," Mr Watts said.
"You're getting pulses of rain, which are good, just more are needed. But this is what we can expect at the moment."
We can no longer base our future decisions on past weather and climate experience says Mr Watts who explained La Nina cycles have been associated with some of the most extreme rainfall events of the past. General trends in warming and drying of the planet are already distinguishing the 21st Century from the last.
"With the current La Nina cycle it's really nice to have this respite but the really important thing to understand is that the past is no longer a reliable guide to the future in terms of weather," Mr Watts explained.
"Going back a decade, Australia has had more hot years than it's ever had before, which is consistent with what's happening around the world. The 21st Century is clearly warmer than the 20th.
"Last Spring was the hottest on record for the country as a whole. That comes after one of the hottest Summers on record and 2020 as a whole was about fourth hottest on record."
Mr Watts explained that the Riverina region is at high risk of the impacts of longer term climate trends in terms of hotter weather that will last for longer, drier winters, increased fire risk and shifting seasons.
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