Would Australia get floods

Answer 1

Although Australia is the second driest continent (with Antarctica being the driest as precipitation there is virtually nil), it can and it does flood in Australia - regularly. Floods are one of the most common natural disasters in the country. This is because of the unique layout of the continent.

Australia is a very flat country. Running down the eastern coast is the Great Dividing Range, so there are the usual coastal plains there. To the west of the range are vast expanses of flat country, and when there is a lot of rainfall (which happens sometimes several times a year, and sometimes only every few years), the rivers quickly swell and break their banks, sending massive floods across these great plains.

Australia spends many years in drought, often caused by the El Ni

Answer 2

Although Australia is the second driest continent (with Antarctica being the driest as precipitation there is virtually nil), it can and it does flood in Australia - regularly. Floods are one of the most common natural disasters in the country. This is because of the unique layout of the continent.

Australia is a very flat country. Running down the eastern coast is the Great Dividing Range, so there are the usual coastal plains there. To the west of the range are vast expanses of flat country, and when there is a lot of rainfall (which happens sometimes several times a year, and sometimes only every few years), the rivers quickly swell and break their banks, sending massive floods across these great plains.

Australia spends many years in drought, often caused by the El Niño effect. When an El Niño occurs, changes in sea surface temperatures cause a shift in air pressure which, in turn, can result in climatic anomalies, such as severe droughts in Australia. These years are punctuated by years of normal rainfall, but occasionally, Australia gets the opposite to an El Niño, which is La Niña. This means that weather conditions, etc, are in reverse to those seen during El Niño, and Australia experiences far more rain than usual. When this happens, many parts of Australia will see gradually increasing rainfall over the period of several months. The ground becomes too saturated to hold any more water. This often occurs during the spring and summer season, which is also cyclone season. Add to the already super-saturated ground the effects of a cyclone which becomes a rain depression once it crossed the coast, and the scenario is one of excessive rainfall leading to the ground becoming waterlogged. (This was the pattern that led to both the Brisbane floods of 1974 and 2011).