Wet weekend, but more rain the key to storage boost
The wet weather over the past weekend (4-5 April) was a welcome relief for our catchments. More rain forecast for this week will help keep water use down and might mean a modest increase in storage levels.
Rain from 8am Friday (3 April) until 8am today (Monday 6 April)
- Average of 25.2mm was received in Melbourne’s major catchments
- 21mm was received at Thomson Reservoir/catchment.
Storage levels
- Storage levels have dropped by 0.1% of capacity since Friday, to be at 28.8% today (6 April)
- Storages were 33.0% at the same time last year.
The rain will help wet the catchments after a fortnight of virtually no rainfall, on top of an extremely dry summer. Follow-up rain will improve the chances of meaningful runoff into reservoirs.
Without the further rain forecast for the next few days, the weekend rainfall by itself will be ineffective in terms of increasing reservoir levels.
The rain is likely to help reduce water consumption, helping Melburnians continue to use less than the Target of 155 litres per person, per day. Gardens and water tanks will also be refreshed.
Drinking water quality not impacted in bushfire-affected catchments
Rainfall over bushfire-affected catchments, including Maroondah and O’Shannassy, will have no impact on the quality of drinking water supplied to the metropolitan area. The city’s 7 other reservoirs, including Thomson, Cardinia and Upper Yarra, hold the vast majority of its water reserves and were not affected by bushfire.