RESIDENTIAL water use has sky rocketed across the Redlands as Queensland records a dry and hot January.
The Bureau of Meteorology released its January climate summary for greater Brisbane today, describing the year’s start as exceptionally dry and warmer than average.
Brisbane had a record run of 16 days in a row at or more than 32 degrees, helping Australia to record its hottest January.
Bureau senior climatologist Dr Andrew Watkins said the month’s heat was unprecedented.
“We saw heatwave conditions affect large parts of the country through most of the month, with records broken for both duration and also individual daily extremes," he said.
“The main contributor to this heat was a persistent high pressure system in the Tasman sea which was blocking any cold fronts and cooler air from impacting the south of the country.”
The greater Brisbane region has also been toasted by a lack of rainfall, with concerns raised by conservationists about dry spell impacts on wildlife.
Beaudesert, which last year received 141 millimetres in January, was dampened by just two millimetres last month, breaking the town’s previous low rainfall record of 43.6 millimetres set in 2010.
Scenic Rim residents, which includes those in Beaudesert, were south-east Queensland’s most conservative water users, averaging just 170 litres per person per day over the past two weeks.
Redland residential water consumption jumped by 20 litres per day to 263 litres.
Redlanders are south-east Queensland’s biggest water users, despite no real change in January’s rainfall total compared to January last year.
About 28.6 millimetres of rain fell on the Redlands last month, which was on par with last year’s January totals.
Redlanders had previously paid about 25 cents less per kilolitre for bulk water compared to other south-east Queensland areas.
However Redlands prices are increasing as Seqwater debt for the south-east Queensland water grid is tackled.
Redlands bulk water, currently charged at $2.748 per kilolitre, will rise to $2.935 from July 1 this year.
The price will rise again to $3.122 per kilolitre from July 2020.
