Australia's Sydney sees wettest year on record

Sydney, Oct 6 (IANS) With three months to spare, annual rainfall in Australia's Sydney already reached its highest level of 2,199.8 mm as of 3:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, since the Observatory Hill weather station began recording in 1858.According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), the city's previous record was set in 1950, when a total deluge of 2,194 mm poured down for the whole year."We are seeing challenges on multiple fronts across the New South Wales (NSW) at present. Across the western part of the state, we got multiple river systems that are in flood to some extent," the state's Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke told ABC on Thursday, speaking of the current weather condition."We are asking communities at this time to listen to the advice that comes out from the BOM and the advice that comes out from the SES (State Emergency Service) and we will get through what we expect will be another few challenging days," Xinhua news agency reported quoting the minister.As the country is facing its third La Nina event in a row, BOM warned on Wednesday that a weather system is bringing widespread rain and storms to eastern and southern Australia this week, which can lead to renewed river level rises across many already flooded rivers."It will be a difficult week but even more so a difficult summer and significant flooding is expected," NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet told reporters at a flood briefing.
--IANS int/svn/

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