Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A real winter (for a change)

Anyone who lives in Perth would know that we've had a lovely wet winter, just like they used to be. I've even caught myself thinking that I wish we'd have a few dry days to do the washing! Here's a chart of the rainfall on our block in the last four years and a bit.


Our rainfall year goes from mid July since we installed the rainwater tank at that time of year. As you can see we've got off to a great start to the year after a poor June (end of year 4). The tank has been full enough to supply all our needs since May 5th, which means we may be 'off grid' for about 30 weeks this year (a record for us).



It feels good not to be taking water from the grid, since Perth's dams are still only at 36% capacity despite all this rain. Streamflow has dropped from 400GL a year pre-1975 to around 100GL a year these days, which means the dams simply don't fill up now. Two thirds of Perth's water are from what I'd call unsustainable sources (desal 23% and groundwater 46%), so to be using rainwater (a truly sustainable resource) is great for us and the general community.  

Here's hoping that it keeps raining and the dams overflow...

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