NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 01:27
Emergency services have rescued more than twenty people from a flooded area in the Australian state of Victoria. More land is expected to be flooded in the region in the coming day, as heavy rain has already fallen recently and more heavy rainfall is forecast.
For example, on Sunday in the town of Redesdale – located about one hundred kilometers north of Melbourne – the amount of rain that normally falls in a month fell in three hours.
The heavy rain has led to saturated ground and high water levels in Victoria’s rivers. There are also problems due to the wet summer in the more northern state of New South Wales, where Sydney is located.
Flash flood warnings
Emergency services in Victoria received around 700 emergency calls on Monday, mainly from the area around the city of Bendigo. Today there are warnings for rip currents in several places.
Aaron White, from the Australian voluntary emergency service SES, warns the public broadcaster ABC that people should not make ill-considered decisions. “For example, by driving through a flooded area. No one knows what is under that water.” According to him, cars can get into trouble in water that is 15 centimeters deep.
Eastern Australia has recently been confronted with quite a few storms, floods and even a hurricane, while drought and forest fires were expected due to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
Every few years, this natural phenomenon – which occurs when the surface temperature of the water in the Pacific Ocean around the equator is warmer than average – leads to record temperatures and extreme weather worldwide. In Australia this often means a warm, dry summer in practice.
In this explainer from NOS op 3 we explain how El Niño arises:
El Niño is back and the whole world will know about it
2024-01-08 00:27:15
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