Flash Flooding More Intense in Recent Years, CSIRO Reports Says

The 2-yearly CSIRO report on the state of the Australia’s climate shows that heavy rainfall events are becoming more intense. 

 

It’s unwanted news for central and northern Victorian communities who are still reeling from October’s flooding. 

 

Project manager for northern Victoria at OzFish, Michelle Slater, said that when you have these “massive rain events” with full catchments, there is nowhere for the water to go. 

 

“So you end up with these flash flood events,” she said. 

 

“They are very fast moving, they up pick up a lot of material and debris from the flood plain as they move through, and eventually they deposit all of that organic material into our rivers systems which can lead to these hypoxic black water events that we’re seeing currently.”   

 

Then, she explained black water events can lead to “fish kills”. 

 

She said the organisation has had multiple reports of fish kills from many river systems in northern Victoria.

 

During La Niña events in 2021-22, eastern Australia experienced one its most significant flood periods ever observed.

 

Image: Shootthedevgru, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.