With or without 'The Night King', there's no escaping the fact that winter is still coming...
Coming off the back of the warmest summer on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), Australians have been bracing themselves (for what feels like eight seasons) for winter, which seems to have officially arrived.
We’ve certainly felt the chills this week as the south east endured a pair of cold fronts that brought with it bursts of rainfall. On top of that, there’s even some snowfall expected a month before the official start of the 2019 ski season, with Alpine regions forecast to receive a dusting of snow in the next few days. Meanwhile, our westerly neighbours already saw the first snowfall in April in 49 years, with a white Good Friday on Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges of Western Australia.
According to our friends at WeatherZone, there’s no need to fear The Long Night as warmer than average temperatures are anticipated this winter season.
This is good news for those south of the wall who dislike being forced into hibernation –Australia’s south east can expect similar conditions to winter in 2017 with mild days and cooler nights starting in the second half of the season.
Despite the expected warmer conditions, winter still delivers chilly weather and there’s little doubt that families in the more than five million homes connected to natural gas networks across Australia will be whispering ‘dracarys’ as they light their heaters.
In preparation of the colder months, AEMO delivered its annual Victorian Gas Winter Outlook earlier this week as part of our commitment to provide industry stakeholders with information about gas operations, planning, market considerations and emergency management.
Representatives from AEMO presented alongside WeatherZone and APA Group at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre to a large cohort of industry stakeholders.
This comes after AEMO’s latest analysis, published in its annual Gas Statement of Opportunities (GSOO) and Victorian Gas Planning Report (VGPR), found that supply from existing and committed gas developments is expected to provide sufficient resources to meet demand in south and south-eastern Australia until 2023. The reports highlight the need for further investment in prospective reserves or alternative gas supply infrastructure developments, required to address a forecast gap in meeting long-term winter gas demand from 2024 onwards.
Looks like this season we’ll be safe in our own personal Kings Landing(s) avoiding the worst of the elements, ready to fight those winter blues another time!
Want to know more about gas and AEMO’s operation of the gas markets? Check out this factsheet for an overview.
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