La Nina

La Nina
La Nina translates into “girl-child’”, which is the opposite to El Nino.La Nina is the cooling season of the tropical regions (Pacific Rim to East Africa and beyond). It occurs every 3-7 years, as well as El Nino. When La Nina strikes, it brings heavy rainfall that can often lead to floods.

The La Nina that appeared in the Pacific in 2010 probably helped last year's south-west monsoon end on the good note. But then again, it also caused one of that country's worst natural disasters with large parts of State of Queensland either under water from floods of unusual proportions or being destroyed by Tropical Cyclones, including that of category 5 Tropical Cyclone Yasi.

Cyclone Yasi and the Queensland Floods

Cyclone Yasi was a frightening storm that struck the east coast of Australia. It brought very violent winds and many storms that brought heavy rain and some flooding. The La Nina weather brought the Monsoonal effect which increased the intensity of the flood. The cyclone was a catagory 5. This is very violent but luckily the people of Queensland were prepared for the furious weather. No-one was killed although millions of dollars was lost when the storm hit banana crops. Millions of dollars was lost when the storm hit and it will take years for the crops to fully grow back.  

Months later, Queensland was struck with yet another storm. This one was also influenced by the La Nina season. It was monsoonal season and rain was expected, but nothing near as much as was was received. $30 Billion dollars was wasted away when Queensland was swept away due to the furious floods. 39 people were killed and 9 are missing. Much of central and southern Queensland including Brisbane, Rockhampton,Emerald, Bundaberg, Dalby,Toowoomba, and Ipswich was flooded. It is currently being re-built with more than 55, 000 volunteers keen to help out a cause than has affected Australian everywhere.