I took a look see at Cataract Dam, just a little southwest of Sydney today.
The Dam level is way below what was apparently ever believed would happen
I had no idea that there would actually be an Island in the middle of the Dam area, but there it is exposed by the low level.............We need so much rain. Conversly the State Govt. should set up some coastal catchments and pump water back into the larger catchments. There is plenty of coastal rainfall relatively speaking, but in any event things are looking grim here abouts.
The first image is a reduced Canon 350 shot with no processing, the second is a Panorama of 6 images 'Autostitched' and cropped to tidyup.
cross your fingers we are going to be getting some pretty crappy weather in the next day or so, and some rain. If this low pressure system develops and sits of the coast we might get some rain around the sydney and central coast regions.
At least you actualy have water in your dams...we dont...lol
Keep the weather down their Houghy..just send us a shower once a week will do us.
storage, supply & performance
Storage & Supply 23 Aug 06 28 Aug 06
Chichester Dam 93% 92.6%
Grahamstown Dam 70.8% 70.6%
Tomago Sandbeds 64.1% 63.7%
Total Storage 70.6% 70.4%
Total Water Supplied (for week ending on) 1715.3ML 1340.5ML
Rainfall 23 Aug 06 28 Aug 06
Chichester Dam 0mm 7.4mm
Grahamstown Dam 0mm 2.8mm
Looks like Sydney is getting some good rain at the moment. Best of luck guys
I really don't hope you get to the point Brisbane is at the moment teetering on Level 4 water restrictions (Dam levels at 25%). Even one day of heavy rain would be great.
Buy yourselves a good sized water tank and your mostly self sufficient, then you can have less worry
Just imagine if most people in Sydney had tanks they probable could reduce the water consumption by about a third
Unfortunately the prediction this year is more of the same again. the weather people are waiting to see if the El Nino effect arrives again around December, if it does thens it more hot and dry conditions.
I'm with the RFS and we are spending this month doing grassfire scenarios at our training sessions, so at the moment more rain will be good for everything.
I also noticed that a documentary is being released at the movies on global warming with Al Gore narrating, from what I haveseen of the previews it looks well made and very interesting.
The Central Coast looks like it's just made the decision to build a water treatment plant.. about bloody time!
Thats right , then we can stop pumping all your water from Us in the hunter valley! Although looking at the radar and the rotation of the cloud we are in for a small drenching
I see, Doug, that the depth indicator has been extended at some point in time. In view of the continuing 'dry' season I suggest you find a disused telescope somewhere, put a few marking on its side and mount it below the current gauge.
The dam was completed in 1907 and cost about $1.3 million. When Cataract filled to capacity for the first time in January 1911, it soon became clear that the spillway should be widened to prevent any risk of floodwaters overtopping the dam wall. This work was completed in 1915. In 1968 a large flood saw the water level climb 1.5 metres overnight reaching 75mm below the walkways across the wall. About 150 million litres of water were discharged out of the old spillway.
Buy yourselves a good sized water tank and your mostly self sufficient, 
then you can have less worry
Although looking at the radar and the rotation of the cloud we are in for a small drenching
