Southwestern Australia Getting Hotter & Drier - Potential Rainfal Loss 20% By 2030 - Reuters

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SYDNEY - Western Australia's southwest, an important agricultural region that also contains one of Australia's largest cities, would continue to get hotter and drier because of climate change, a government-backed study said.

Rainfall was declining, while projections of further declines in rainfall were greater than first expected, Chris Mitchell of the government-backed Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) told Reuters on Monday. The region contains Perth, Australia's western capital and fourth biggest city with 1.5 million people, and also grows two of the country's most important crops, wheat and grapes.

The study forecast that rainfall in the area may fall by up to 20 percent by 2030 compared with levels between 1960 and 1990. The number of winter rain days was forecast to decrease by up to 17 percent, with the water run-off into catchments falling by between 5 and 40 percent, it said.

The changes might further increase by about 2085, with rainfall declining by between 5 and 34 percent and the number of winter rain days decreasing by up to 30 percent, it said. Observed temperature increases and winter rainfall decline in the region were unlikely to be due to natural climate variability alone, the study said.

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