SYDNEY, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Weather analyses from Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) have revealed that more above-average rainfall is possible in the coming winter and spring months.
A BoM climate driver update released on Tuesday forecast the possibility of a negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), which measures differences in sea-surface temperatures across the ocean, developing in the coming months.
"A negative IOD increases the chances of above-average winter-spring rainfall for much of Australia. It also increases the chances of warmer days and nights for northern Australia," read the forecast announcement.
A special report from the BoM released on Wednesday showed that flooding earlier in the year was the result of two years of La Nina conditions that assisted the formation of a series of slow-moving low-pressure systems over eastern Australia and New Zealand.
"Following two years of La Nina conditions, the rain fell on catchments that were already wet so water storages and river levels were high and catchments quickly became saturated."
The Bureau assessed a total of seven forecast models, two of which predicted that La Nina conditions would continue through the southern hemisphere's winter, the others predicting that it would subside.
The report outlined that the rainfall between February 22 to March 1 was some of the most significant on record.
"For the last week of February, rainfalls across parts of the region were at least 2.5 times the February average ... For northeast New South Wales and large areas of southeastern Queensland, this was the wettest week since at least 1900," read the report.
The report also said that the record-breaking bouts were on trend for future forecasts of heavy rainfall events, which were attributed to the warming climate.
"A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor than a cooler atmosphere, and this relationship alone can increase moisture in the atmosphere by 7 percent per 1 degree Celsius of global warming. This can cause an increased likelihood of heavy rainfall events."
Australia's February and March floods were likely the nation's costliest ever, according to data from the Insurance Council of Australia. They spurred nearly 200,000 insurance claims, primarily for property damage, running up an estimated cost of 3.34 billion Australian dollars (about 2.37 billion U.S. dollars).
Apart from physical destruction, the floods also claimed the lives of 23 people and left countless more injured, stranded and without accommodation. ■