Warragamba's drum and radial gates open in 1973 (Panoramio)
A slowly moving trough, which is expected to take as much as three days to clear New South Wales, will dump enough rainfall into the catchments to ensure that Warragamba Dam, Sydney will spill for the first time in 14 years.
The floodgates of Sydney’s Warragamba dam are being tested as heavy rains put it on the verge of filling up for the first time in 14 years.
As the State Emergency Service keeps an eye on overflowing rivers, the Sydney Catchment Authority is expecting Warragamba to reach full capacity for the first time since August 1998.
Floodgates are scheduled to be tested for two hours from 8am (AEDT), with staff anticipating dam levels at one metre below full storage.
Sydney Catchment Authority acting chief executive Sarah Dinning says preparations are being made to release excess water.
‘Due to the variable weather conditions, we have staff available around the clock and the test will occur as soon as the dam reaches one metre below full storage,’ she said.
‘Once Warragamba Dam is 80mm above its full storage level the drum gate opens automatically.’
Evacuations are underway in one town and emergency crews are standing by in others as large parts of NSW continue to be deluged with the heaviest rains in more than 80 years. (source)
Perhaps it’s time to visit one of the dire predictions of Tim Flannery, Climate Commissioner (salary $180,000 for 3 days work), from 2007:
“Even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and river systems. In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months.”
Australian Climate Madness 
Hang this up in every classroom in the country alongside Flannery’s and the IPCC’s predictions with the caption…
Think again!
http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/fld_history/brisbane_history.shtml
When you ignore evidence your always wrong.
If you take evidence into account only may be wrong, but you’ll be correct when knew evidence presents itself.
Of course he’ll ignore his failed predictions and blame the overrunning dams on global warming; that’s the alarmist way.
Absolutely – expect to hear alarmist claims that global warming, (which will no doubt soon be re-named global cooling!), is to blame for the recent and current floods around Australia. Also expect zero answers as to why previous predictions of global warming (cooling) caused extended droughts. In fact, doubtless individuals asking those questions will be labelled ‘sceptics’ in an attempt to both isolate them from the debate.
Kennelly built the desal at Kurnell!!!!!!!!!! now it is winding down
Hmm Flannery is not wrong with his no rain prediction…..Simply, spoil sport rain was not told about Flannery’s prediction…..
I’m sure we can expect to see Flannery being questioned on the yAyBC about these predictions and his salary any time now.
Actually I would love to see Chris Uhlmann grill Flannery on the 7.30 report. He’s the only decent reporter I’ve seen in that nest of mediocrity. But what are the chances?
It will never happen..
Flannery was on the MONEY with is prediction, or he got the money, he is part of the village idiots,,, not even Nostradamus got it right,, but the idiots thinks that he has the gift lol lol now where is my boat
How come Flannery is nowhere to be seen?? He did what he was paid very handsomely to do: whip up global warming alarmism in preparation for the carbon dioxide tax, which he did. He should be sued together with this useless, treacherous government for destroying Australian economy.
Agreed. Flannery should be in court on fraud charges.
The ignorant Flannery has fled to Germany…. but released a statement via his office…..STILL warning of dry and drought.
The weather events occurring today in Australia were commonly known by a great many of the population until members of the CAGW movement decided to attribute them to anthropogenic causes for personal, political, ideological and financial gain.
“My Country” the poem about Australia by Dorothea Mackellar in 1908 has been brought up on blog posts relating to CAGW in the past. The statements in “My Country” have held true for more than a hundred years.
People need to be reminded that it is the same as it ever was.
Select lines
[I love a sunburnt country…Of droughts and flooding rains…We see the cattle die – But then the grey clouds gather…And we can bless again…The steady, soaking rain…For flood and fire and famine…She pays us back threefold – Over the thirsty paddocks…Watch, after many days, the filmy veil of greenness That thickens as we gaze.]
yes. money is in drought and will happen more frequently
Thanks to the over-paid and seldom heard (nowadays) Tim Flannery’s dire predictions of ‘no more flooding rains’ NSW residents are left with a bill for $2 billion for the construction of a desalination plant. If that wasn’t bad enough, annual operating costs had blown out more than 30 per cent to $73 million.
Now with flooding rains and Warragamba Dam at near capacity, Sydney Water announced on 29 February 2012 that it was cutting back production to 45,000 m³ per day, the minimum to keep the plant running.
Whilst Professor Flannery enjoys his sojourn in Germany, NSW residents will be paying to produce desalinated water to be pumped over Warragamba Dams spillway!
If there is a drout, it’s “climate change”, if ther is flooding, it’s “climate change”. Must be nice to cry wolf all the time and cover your ass both ways with junk science.
no, reality is wrong, flannerys computer model are correct….this wet is the new dry…don’t you people get it yet?
At
http://tinyurl.com/866yav4
(Daily Telegraph) I noticed this:
“After yesterday discovering Professor Flannery is not a meteorologist,
the Weather Channel’s meteorologists said it was probably best he left
the forecasting to them. People ideally suited to that are meteorologists. From what I can see on Tim Flannery, meteorology wasn’t one of his specialties, Weather Channel’s Dick Whitaker said.”
Dick Whitaker’s a nice old guy, appears eminently trustworthy, but generally avoids rocking the boat. Always interesting to note what he says – and doesn’t say, but looks like he’s said it now …
To call that crackpot an idiot would be an insult to idiot. [snip]
Why are you surprised. Flannery works for the ALP, an organisation noted for its lies and corruption. Perhaps the Trade Union movement should take charge – oh dear, it already has.
Oh some of you think that your states wasted lots of money on a desalination plant. Let’s have a look at Victoria’s (my home state) desalination plant. An 85km pipeline has been dug up and disrupted residences that won’t even be used for a very long time for a desal plant. The cost of the whole project was 1st set at $2.9 billion, then $3.1 billion, then $3.5 billion and finally at $4 billion. Further costs will be over $1.5 billion for the next 25-30 years. Also there has been very little work done on the plant due to various workers pay disputes. Victorian has had a massive increase in it’s rainfall over the past couple of years and I also think that desalination is not an answer for lack of water problems considering the environmental consequences of the waste towards the environment. Yes, another Labor failure. Getting back to topic, Flannery is a tool.
Flannery thinks science has been settled on the global warming and anyone who disagrees is a denier.
Why are they not releasing water today, or indeed for the last few days? The rate at which they will finally have to release water, in order to retain the dam’s integrity, is going to overwhelm and ruin farms downstream. This is shaping up as Wivenhoe again.
Lazlo – Warragamba isn’t a flood mitigation dam, it’s for water storage. When the dam is full, they let it spill and anything flowing into the catchment will be passed downstream over the spillway at whatever rate is required to maintain 100% capacity at Warragamba.
who feed the s*** to the computers,,,, humans lol
Where’s Tim ‘the [snip]’ Flannery? We will never see rains ever again – [snip]!
Our elusive Gaia Guru has run off to Germany….not answering media questions either, leaving that up to his office.
Tim is in Germany where they have had LOTS of snow. I wonder how that happened? I wonder how his house on the Hawkesbury is going? I wonder how much he knows about anything. Does anyone know how he and Rossy Garneaut are getting on together? Dreaming up another fraud tax on us for Gillard to shove down our throats.