La Niña de Australia — contemporary and palaeo-hydrology of Lake Eyre

The available records of inflows to Lake Eyre cover only forty five years. Their quality is questionable. As longer time series of precipitation records are available, the observed series of inflows to Lake Eyre can be extended with the help of a rainfall-runoff model. Further reconstruction of the inflow series can be achieved by examining local evidence or with the help of proxy data. However, the limitations of these extensions and reconstructions of inflows are severe. The inflows to Lake Eyre could be considered one of the most convincing manifestations of hydrological uncertainty. However, it is apparent that major flooding episodes in the Lake Eyre Basin are most often associated with La Niña phases of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. The paper presents a hydrological description of the Lake Eyre Basin and large-scale contemporary and palaeo climatic patterns which affect the water balance of the catchment. A simple water balance model has been constructed to determine storages of the lake when annual evaporation reaches equilibrium with annual runoff.