A man collects water from the municipal water supply in West Bengal, India, on March 25, 2018.
Credit: Saikat Paul/Pacific Press/Lightrocket/Getty

My friend Mark Oats, a farmer in Australia, recently sent this note to me:

Last night I looked through the Bureau of Meteorology App at the monthly rainfall figures for January, and temperatures.

The region around Byron Lismore has had 1.6 percent of average rainfall for January and is 2.6C degrees warmer than average. 98.4 percent less rain than normal. Virtually nothing — and hence the people, plant, animal and food pressures growing.

Then looking further afield across all capital cities and major regions. … Everywhere is down on average rainfall, except just one area — North Queensland — and that is only due to some late January flooding rains.

Melbourne 9.7 percent of normal rainfall. Adelaide 0 percent. Perth 43.1 percent. Hobart 0.8 percent. Sydney 47.7 percent. Brisbane 17.9 percent of normal rainfall.

After North Queensland, the next best is Western Sydney and Wollongong at around 70 percent of average normal rainfall — all […]