Weather Forecast for the Winter of 2005

Construction in the winter in the Otways is not going to be easy. The winter rain brought by the Antarctic weather systems are fairly constant. They deliver the wind and the rain at temperatures that minimise evapo-transpiration, whilst keeping grass growth to a minimum producing wet and spongy conditions to work in. The combination places pressure on the dairy farmer to manage the pasture to keep paddocks in reasonable shape and to maximise the opportunity through drainage that as the temperature rise and sunshine hours increase that the grass gets every chance to grow.

For the builder these same climatic conditions have an impact on their ability to build. So getting the team onto the buildings concrete slab is a key part of a winter build programme avoid the traipsing of mud and clay across the site. Last winter was the wettest for 20 years, this year the forecasters are predicting that the winter period will yield circa 40% of it’s average rainfall, whilst this is good for a builder, remaining dry and potentially minimising the number of days lost to inclement weather, whilst giving good momentum to the build programme at Moonlight, for the dairy farmer this could present a difficult season if the dry conditions run into spring.