Australia drought continues:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/Drought: Rainfall deficiencies and water availability
*August rainfall was below average over much of New South Wales, southern Queensland, northern and eastern Victoria, South Australia, and northern Tasmania
*Rainfall deficiencies generally persist with little change in affected areas
*Long-term rainfall deficiencies, record-low for some periods, continue to severely limit water resources across the Murray–Darling Basin
*Root-zone soil moisture was below average for August for most of Australia
*Water storages in the Northern Murray–Darling Basin extremely low, with no meaningful inflows during August
*Below average winter filling season for water storages in the Southern Basin for the third year in a row
When compared to other 32-month periods commencing in January, the 32 months from January 2017 to August 2019 has been the driest on record averaged over the Murray–Darling Basin (34% below the 1961–1990 average), as well as over the northern Murray–Darling Basin (40% below average) and for the state of New South Wales (34% below average). All three regions have also been the driest on record for the 20 months from January 2018 to August 2019, whilst the 26 months from July 2017 to August 2019 rank second in all three regions; only the 1900–02 peak of the Federation Drought has been drier. The last 32 and 20 months have also been the driest on record averaged over the Border Rivers, Macquarie–Bogan, Namoi, Gwydir, and Castlereagh catchments, with the last 20 months also the driest on record for the Moonie, Condamine-Culgoa, and Lower Murray catchments.