Rain needed

Brisbane, and everywhere west of Brisbane, is very, very dry at the moment.  There is hope for a little rain today, but it sounds like barely enough to green the lawns.  When you drive down Milton Road from the city, and look up at Mt Cootha, there are patches of brown trees extending up the mountainside.  I am not sure if they are dying, but I don't recall ever seeing this before, and it doesn't feel very re-assuring.

Interestingly, I see that most water supply dams close to the coast are at relatively healthy levels.  Quite a few are virtually full, although Brisbane's Wivenhoe is down to 52.8%.   Somerset Dam, however, which feeds directly into it, is at 74.5%.  I

You don't have to go too much further inland, though, to see some dams effectively empty - which tends not to be a good thing in agricultural areas (he says with understatement.)

As in Queensland, I think virtually everywhere away from the coast in New South Wales has been on extended drought for a long time.  I know someone with family in Walgett.  Photos show it as a dustbowl.  Someone else I know who has relatives at Tamworth says trees are dying everywhere there.

I hope this isn't the start of another really prolonged, widespread drought like the one in the 2000's.