19th January 2008, 08:20 am
What a strange story from the ABC Online news service:
“Man critically injured in train platform accident” (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/19/2142088.htm)
“A man is in critical condition after colliding with a train on a platform of Carnegie Station in Melbourne on Friday afternoon.
Police say the 62-year-old approached the empty express train before he was hit.”
A man collided … (objects collide with objects; in common usage, people don’t collide with trains)
… on a platform … (the train must have risen up from the track)
… the 62-year-old approached the empty express train … (”approached”? - like he was going to ask it for the time?)
1st January 2008, 06:23 pm
The rainfall chart for 2007 is now closed - the tally has been added to this table.
Monthly rainfall tallies for the past 6 years (in millimetres), as at 20 km east of Armidale, NSW.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
2002 50.0 80.0 78.7 3.5 4.3 21.9 10.3 58.2 26.7 25.0 83.2 75.6 517.4
2003 51.6 144.5 52.7 108.7 39.1 31.8 18.9 23.0 5.7 91.3 55.9 71.1 694.3
2004 192.1 77.8 65.2 22.4 5.4 20.4 43.3 49.6 45.9 111.2 69.0 133.8 836.0
2005 92.9 66.3 16.2 13.2 18.8 82.6 20.9 13.4 87.1 60.2 154.3 98.7 724.6
2006 109.5 115.2 110.2 22.5 3.6 45.8 46.4 30.8 44.8 29.8 133.6 43.8 735.0
2007 98.1 137.1 95.4 43.6 21.7 39.9 8.7 105.4 13.8 95.7 102.8 127.7 889.9
The 135 year average for Armidale (in millimetres) is:
Avg 104.5 87.1 65.0 45.9 44.4 56.9 49.2 48.4 51.6 67.8 80.4 89.2 790.1
So, 890 mm (35 inches) of rain for the year isn’t too bad considering that this area was officially drought declared for part of the year. One good year doesn’t break the multi-year span of a drought, though. We just have to learn to live with less water in some years.
