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Climate

Temporal climatic variations are primarily associated with elevation, varying from semi-arid in the west to temperate in the east, and resulting in a general distribution into four categories. The total averaged annual rainfall for the entire Murrumbidgee river catchment is about 530mm, with a mean annual precipitation of 300mm in the west and about 1,900mm towards the east in the Snowy Mountains. The actual evapotranspiration is equivalent to precipitation in the west but represents only half of the precipitation in the east. Long term averaged precipitation data for the Murrumbidgee Catchment shows a relatively constant rate of rainfall across the year, with a slight increase in winter and decrease in summer. In contrast, the total evaporation rate fluctuates significantly depending on the seasonal conditions, with the monthly potential evapotranspiration dropping from 200mm during the summer to 25mm during the winter. Consequently, during May to August there is potentially recharge since the evapotranspiration rate is less than the amount of precipitation. During the winter period, precipitation above 1,200m typically falls as snow, with regions above 1,400m usually covered by snow for a few weeks of the year. Moreover, above 1,800m the snow cover can last for four months or more (Whetton et al., 1996). Climate, precipitation, areal PET, and snow coverage data have been sourced by the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia.

Precipitation

Areal PET

Snow coverage

Seasonal Climate

Source: Bureau of Meteorology, Australia