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Previous studies of the recent drought in the Murray- Darling Basin (MDB) have noted that low rainfall totals have been accompanied by anomalously high air temperatures. Subsequent studies have interpreted an identified trend in the residual timeseries of non-rainfall related temperature variability as a signal of anthropogenic change, further speculating that increased air temperature has exacerbated the drought through increasing evapotranspiration rates. In this study, we explore an alternative explanation of the recent increases in air temperature. This study demonstrates that significant misunderstanding of known processes of land surface – atmosphere interactions has led to the incorrect attribution of the causes of the anomalous temperatures, as well as significant misunderstanding of their impact on evaporation within the Murray-Darling Basin.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	drought ENSO IPO PDO IOD climate variability evaporation evapotranspiration MDB
Research Division:	Engineering
Research Group:	Environmental Engineering
Research Field:	Environmental Engineering Modelling
Objective Division:	Environment
Objective Group:	Land and Water Management
Objective Field:	Land and Water Management of environments not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Franks, SW (Professor Stewart Franks)
ID Code:	86419
Year Published:	2009
Web of Science® Times Cited:	24
Deposited By:	Engineering
Deposited On:	2013-09-14
Last Modified:	2013-10-23
Downloads:	0