Fig. 2: The timing, duration and frequency of droughts differs substantially across Australia’s climate regimes. | Communications Earth & Environment

Fig. 2: The timing, duration and frequency of droughts differs substantially across Australia’s climate regimes.

From: Physical mechanisms of meteorological drought development, intensification and termination: an Australian review

Fig. 2

a Time series of precipitation anomalies with drought periods marked in red (below the 15th percentile calculated over the full time series covering 1900–2023) for northwestern Australia (wet season DJF). Inset plot shows region location. b As in (a) but for southwestern Australia (cool season AMJJAS). c As in (a) but for the Murray-Darling Basin (annual). d Monthly precipitation anomalies in the Murray-Darling Basin during the period marked by the dashed box in (c); anomalies calculated and drought periods coloured, as in (a–c). e Annual precipitation anomalies (relative to 1900–2023) during the period marked by the dashed box in (c). Precipitation data is from the Australian Gridded Climate Dataset (AGCD) of gridded station observations141.

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