Community-based wind erosion monitoring across Australia 1

November 2016

Dust activity Dust activity in the south west increased from last month

Wind strength Average for this time of the year

Groundcover Decreasing but very good for this time of the year

Rainfall Average to slightly above average

Land management Grain harvest and summer crop sowing commenced

Dust activity

There was increased dust compared to last month in the south western part of the DustWatch network

during November 2016. Lameroo (10h) and Wycheproof (12h) in particular experienced dust hazes in

early November 2016 (Figure 1). Similar to last month, isolated bare paddocks that have been fallowed

for cropping are the reason for the increased dust activity around Lameroo and Wycheproof.

Moree, in the north east of New South Wales, recorded 3 hours of dust from the north east in early

November. The likely source is bare irrigation paddocks along the Macintyre River and some dryland

cotton paddocks nearby that are not yet protected by the emerging crop.

The majority of the dust recorded in November 2016 is related to cropping activities and not grazing

pressure.

Figure 1: Hours of dust activity (number in brackets) at each DustWatch site in November 2016

Community-based wind erosion monitoring across Australia 2

Groundcover

Most areas have greater than 90% of the area above 50% groundcover (Table 1). The areas with greater

than 50% groundcover have decreased slightly in the Mallee Catchment Management Area, the South

Australian Murray Darling Basin area and the Local Land Services - Western Region (green colours in

Figure 2 and Table 1).

Even though groundcover is declining, the levels are still very good, particularly in the Local Land

Services - Western Region. For this region November 2016 was the 3rd best November since records

began in 2000 with an area of 83% with groundcover greater 50%, only beaten by November 2010 and

2011 (Figure 4).

It was also the equal largest area for the Mallee Catchment Management Area (97%) since 2000. This

result was on par with November 2001 and November 2010 (Figure 4).

Figure 2: Groundcover for November 2016 as determined from MODIS data.

Table 1: Percentage NRM area with groundcover >50% for May to November 2016 as determined from MODIS data.

Date Central West

Mallee Murray North Central

North West

Riverina SA MDB Western Central Tablelands

May 2016 99 92 100 100 96 99 92 83 100

Jun 2016 100 99 100 100 98 100 98 96 100

Jul 2016 100 100 100 100 99 100 99 97 100

Aug 2016 100 100 100 100 99 100 98 94 100

Sep 2016 100 100 100 100 99 100 98 96 100

Oct 2016 100 99 100 100 99 100 96 88 100

Nov 2016 99 97 99 100 99 99 93 83 100

Community-based wind erosion monitoring across Australia 3

Groundcover change

Over the last three months (August 2016 to November 2016) groundcover has reduced visibly across the

wheat / sheep belt and along the river corridor around Bourke (red colours in Figure 3). The majority of

this groundcover reduction occurred in the last 4 weeks. The very hot and dry conditions in November

2016 slowed or stopped any further pasture growth and domestic and feral animal consumption

surpassed pasture production. This normally occurs earlier in spring (Figure 4) but the wet and cool

conditions in 2016 prolonged pasture growth this season.

Figure 3: Groundcover change between August 2016 and November 2016 as determined from MODIS data.

Figure 4: Groundcover trend for the Western LLS and Mallee and SA-MDB CMA as determined from MODIS data.

Community-based wind erosion monitoring across Australia 4

Rainfall

New South Wales recorded variable rainfall in November 2016. The north west of New South Wales

recorded very little or no rain at all. In contrast the south west received good falls between 25 and 50mm,

especially along the New South Wales - Victorian border. Similar falls were recorded in a strip between

Mildura and east of Dubbo.

Figure 5: Rainfall totals for November 2016

Rainfall across the DustWatch network in November 2016 was at or below average for November 2016

(white and red colours in Figure 6a) with the exception of an area along the New South Wales - Victorian

border between Lake Victoria and Deniliquin and an area around Ivanhoe. These areas received above

average rainfall (blue colours in Figure 6a). Due to the substantially above average rainfall in September

and October the three monthly rainfall deciles remained predominantly in the wettest 10 percent of

records (dark blue colours in Figure 6b).

Figure 6: Rainfall deciles for November 2016 (a) and 1 September 2016 to 30 November 2016 (b)

Community-based wind erosion monitoring across Australia 5

MODIS satellite

Fire numbers in November 2016 were very similar to the previous month. A cluster of fires occurred in

the Local Land Services – Murray area. Fires were evenly spread across the weeks (marked by varying

colours in Figure 7).

Hazard reduction burns in the upper and lower Hunter in late October (see October DustWatch report)

and the early part of November (green and blue dots in Figure 7) caused air quality issues in the Sydney

Greater Metropolitan Area.

Figure 7: Active burning fires in November 2016 as determined from MODIS satellite.

From the engine room

The long awaited new TSI DustTrak™ has finally arrived at Gunnedah. The unit will be tested over the

Christmas break. If the tests are successful we will deploy 10 new units across the network over the

coming months to replace the aging original DustTraks™.

Photo 1: Environmental DustTrak at the Gunnedah test site.

Community-based wind erosion monitoring across Australia 6

Social media

The great photo below was posted on Instagram by Dan Proud for 4WD Australia. It shows an

approaching dust storm near Innamincka on the Strzelecki Track in November 2016.

Photo 2: Approaching dust storm near Innamincka on the Strzelecki Track (Dan Proud).

The DustWatch team Contact us at dustwatch@environment.nsw.gov.au The MODIS image is courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC; the fire data is courtesy of the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) and the rainfall maps are from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. This project would not be possible without funding from: the National Landcare Programme, Riverina, Western, Central West, Central Tablelands and Murray Local Land Services (LLS) in NSW; the NSW EPA, the Mallee and North Central CMAs in Victoria and Murray Darling Basin NRM in South Australian and in-kind contributions from Griffith University in Queensland, CSIRO, TERN and the Australian National University. We particularly thank our many DustWatch volunteers who provide observations and help maintain the instruments. ISSN - 2206-3161 OEH 2016/0804