{"id":293453,"date":"2024-01-02T09:35:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T08:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=293453"},"modified":"2024-01-02T09:35:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T08:35:22","slug":"torrential-rain-a-120-plus-year-record-from-kuranda-near-cairns-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=293453","title":{"rendered":"Torrential Rain, a 120-Plus Year Record from Kuranda, near Cairns (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Jennifer Marohasy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 2, 2024\u00a0By\u00a0jennifer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born in Darwin, and raised in the Tropics, knowing the sound of monsoon rains on a tin roof \u2013 so loud, like a heard of buffalo galloping overhead. Always wondering, as I lay in bed when it would end, whether it would flood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caused by deep convection this is also how the Earth cools: driving energy from the Earth-ocean surface where it has accumulated to the upper atmosphere where it can be radiated to space as infra-red emissions. That is also the water cycle, and of course, water vapour is a greenhouse gas. Quite a bit was let off recently with cyclone Jasper and all the flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rainfall record for Kuranda is more than 120 year long, providing more than 4 weather cycles of information on rainfall in the catchment draining to Cairns, that recently suffered such terrible flooding. Especially the northern beaches, home to both family and friends. I phoned my sister to offer commiserations, and of course, she had to add that it was all so \u2018unprecedented \u2013 the rainfall\u2019, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I would wait until the rainfall totals were in before making comment. And so it is with this new year that we have the rainfall totals for Kuranda, the longest records that I know of for that catchment, for the Barron River catchment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kuranda is a mountain village above Cairns \u2013 beside the headwaters of the Barron River. It\u2019s known for the Kuranda Scenic Railway, which winds its way down to Cairns through tropic rainforest dotted with spectacular palm trees growing aside waterfalls that vary from a trickle to a torrent depending, of course, on the rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the story goes 1882 was another unprecedented year of heavy rain. It cut the supply routes from the mining towns beyond the mountains to the coastal settlements including Cairns. Legendary bushman Christie Palmerston was tasked to find a reliable supply route for a railway to link the rich mining area to the sea. And so, the Kuranda railway was built opening in 1891, and with an official Australian Bureau of Meteorology rainfall record from 1896.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This record does not extend back to 1882, but we can see that 1911 is the wettest year on record with nearly 5,000 millimeters (4,921) of rain, followed by 1979 (4,657) and most recently, this last December nearly 4,500 mm fell (4,417). It is the case that this December is the wettest on record, with the heaviest rains in 1979 falling in January, and in 1911 it was in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It is unfortunate that there is no continuous temperature record for Kuranda, in fact temperatures have never been measured at Kuranda, at least not by the Bureau. They were measured at the Cairns post office from 1890 to 1952, and of course, this record shows\u00a0cooling<\/em>\u00a0of maximum temperatures from 1920 to 1940, as do maximum temperature records from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yet, curiously, climate change catastrophists and leading sceptics alike tend to deny this cooling and go on and on, variously about the one degree C increase in temperatures through the twentieth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also like to claim that it is impossible to forecast rainfall, even my colleagues at the IPA. Of course, if you strip every historical temperature record of all meaningful cycles (particularly the cooling from 1920 to 1940) then reliable rainfall forecasting does become impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be continued.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caused by deep convection this is also how the Earth cools: driving energy from the Earth-ocean surface where it has accumulated to the upper atmosphere where it can be radiated to space as infra-red emissions. That is also the water cycle, and of course, water vapour is a greenhouse gas. Quite a bit was let off recently with cyclone Jasper and all the flooding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":293454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Caused by deep convection this is also how the Earth cools: driving energy from the Earth-ocean surface where it has accumulated to the upper atmosphere where it can be radiated to space as infra-red emissions. That is also the water cycle, and of course,","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818099,691821795,691818056,691825884,691825883],"class_list":{"0":"post-293453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australian-bureau-of-meteorology","9":"tag-climate-catastrophists","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-kuranda","12":"tag-water-vapour-is-a-greenhouse-gas","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0Rain-Annual-9.05.22%E2%80%AFam.png?fit=1940%2C1674&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1el7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":369299,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=369299","url_meta":{"origin":293453,"position":0},"title":"Beyond CO\u2082: Unraveling the Roles of Energy, Water Vapor, and Convection in Earth\u2019s Atmosphere","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/03\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Fundamentally the entire man-made CO2\u00a0global warming concept, boils down to the interaction of energy and matter in Earth\u2019s atmosphere.\u00a0The only reason that CO2\u00a0and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) are special is that they absorb most of the radiation emitted by Earth\u2019s surface. Water vapor absorbs across almost the entire emission spectrum\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Atmospheric temperature\"","block_context":{"text":"Atmospheric temperature","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=atmospheric-temperature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0view-edge-earth-atmosphere-layer.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0view-edge-earth-atmosphere-layer.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0view-edge-earth-atmosphere-layer.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0view-edge-earth-atmosphere-layer.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0view-edge-earth-atmosphere-layer.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":332260,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=332260","url_meta":{"origin":293453,"position":1},"title":"Science of Heat Waves Reveals Blaming CO2 is a Scam!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"With a disproportionate focus on the greenhouse effect and fossil fuels, most people are totally unaware that the earth\u2019s surface is cooled primarily by convection currents carrying warm buoyant air up and away. Indeed, with water vapor and CO2 making the lower 1000 meters of the atmosphere opaque to most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00GPfFxxraIAAjWfB.jpeg?fit=1108%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00GPfFxxraIAAjWfB.jpeg?fit=1108%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00GPfFxxraIAAjWfB.jpeg?fit=1108%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00GPfFxxraIAAjWfB.jpeg?fit=1108%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00GPfFxxraIAAjWfB.jpeg?fit=1108%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":306512,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=306512","url_meta":{"origin":293453,"position":2},"title":"Climate Model Bias 4: Convection and atmospheric circulation","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/03\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A likely amplifying mechanism is Earth\u2019s convection and atmospheric circulation system. This post examines that idea. It is yet another important idea that the IPCC and AR6 ignore and brush away as unimportant, vis-\u00e0-vis global warming.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-84.png?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-84.png?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-84.png?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-84.png?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-84.png?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":389699,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=389699","url_meta":{"origin":293453,"position":3},"title":"Toward a Deterministic Model of Cloud Development over Ocean Warm Pools","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/07\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This article begins with observations of top of atmosphere radiation balance over a moored buoy located in the middle of the Bay of Bengal in conjunction with surface data from the moored buoy for the same time.\u00a0 It progresses into more recent observations of daily OLR emission from above all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Clouds\"","block_context":{"text":"Clouds","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=clouds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0Screenshot-2025-07-19-130222.png?fit=1200%2C749&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0Screenshot-2025-07-19-130222.png?fit=1200%2C749&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0Screenshot-2025-07-19-130222.png?fit=1200%2C749&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0Screenshot-2025-07-19-130222.png?fit=1200%2C749&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0Screenshot-2025-07-19-130222.png?fit=1200%2C749&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":218185,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=218185","url_meta":{"origin":293453,"position":4},"title":"A Much Larger Greenhouse Effect \u2013 But Temperatures Dominated by Cooling","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks to H2O-related surface cooling the Earth\u2019s surface temperatures are bound to a narrow range, at a temperature level well suited for life on Earth. Due to its stability, life developed over many hundreds of millions of years.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-513.png?fit=984%2C552&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-513.png?fit=984%2C552&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-513.png?fit=984%2C552&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-513.png?fit=984%2C552&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":206249,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=206249","url_meta":{"origin":293453,"position":5},"title":"Media Claims CO2 \u201cTraps Heat\u201d! A Big Lie or A Big Stupid???","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/36dAG3YkqSE Jim Steele This video exposes a popular climate myth pushed by the media. Although greenhouse gases warm the earth\u2019s average temperature, CO2 does not trap heat! Click bait media thrives on fearmongering and publishes misleading illustrations of solar energy entering the earth\u2019s atmosphere, but no energy or little energy\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-116.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-116.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-116.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-116.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293453"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293462,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293453\/revisions\/293462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/293454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}