What are the tropics?
Covering a vast expanse of country, tropical conditions in Australia vary depending on latitude, topography and proximity to the coast. Broadly speaking, the tropical climate zone is characterised by two distinct seasons, ‘the wet’ and ‘the dry’. The dry season is stable with cooler temperatures, low humidity and clear skies. For much of the region, more water evaporates than falls as rain during the dry season. The tropical wet brings extreme rainfall in heavy bursts from thunderstorms, widespread monsoon depressions or cyclones. These heavy rain surges generate 65% of Australia’s total water runoff with most of the water draining into the sea. Because of the seasonality and unreliability of the rainfall, people living in the tropics depend on dams and bores tapping into artesian groundwater for their water supply.
